Colmanara?
 

Hi,

A percentage of my orchids (tho none of my Catts) come from the trash in my pretentious building; the staff come upon them, and they know in front of whose door to leave them, Bless them.

This, naturally, means most of those in question have no labels, and, I mostly don't care; I enjoy trying to save them, and, I mostly manage that.

I've had this intergenetic hybrid for a long time, my take is it's a Colmanara, I think, not one of the the wildcats, not enough mottling. BUT, I did come upon Wildcat 'Rainbow' on the net, and it does look pretty close.

Does this look familiar to anyone here? This is not life and death, guys!

Many thanks!

Looks like Oncidium (Colmanera) Space Race to me. I've learned on this board that sometimes individual plants can be a bit less or more, and conditions sometimes change the coloring slightly. I love your building. Snooty or not. Would love to be passed down scads of cool orchids with or without names!

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]You chose an apt user name....and, I share yr optimism! U bet, it's very cool, and, given, if I can save them, waiting to see the reality of their blooms for the first time is a real adventure!

But I despise humans who buy orchids, learn nothing about their care, then throw them out---often in terrible shape---when their blooms go. Plants are LIVING BEINGS.

I know it was a longshot to ask, but my take is the collective savvy on this board is huge, then I saw an Identification forum, so, no harm in asking! I am 94% leaning toward Colmanara of some sort.

All my Phals are rescues---just over 30 right now---and with those, no point in even wondering re identity, the number of hybrids is infinite given Phals are ubiquitous.

But, I do have what I think might be some primary hybrids...minis. One whose blooms I am seeing for the first time. It may have a violacea parent. Well, I think. Blooms are around 1"....I just took a bad pic, need to wait for natural light for greater color fidelity; this pic is very yellow.

People hrumph. They buy dogs and cats and leave them to starve. They have children and beat them. Errrg! I would need to rename myself Pessimist if the subject is humanity!

In a few years I will try to switch from "easy orchids" to the harder kinds. I promised I would not get any more, and today a shipment of 5 bare root oncidiums arrives. Ebay, you are a Fiend! and, I am weak, but at least it is not ice cream or pizza!

You did not get your orange mini from the hotel? (Luv it by the by) It does not seem like something they would buy.

Hey vivid life force human!

It's true, what people often do to all living beings simply boggles. Soooo painful to witness!

You are ready NOW! :youcandothis: Just be honest/objective in discerning/assessing the elements of your growing conditons is all.....indulge/celebrate the addiction!:D

The New Normal for this (Internal dialogue): you don't need more, have no room or time for more; you fall in love, you exhaust yrself trying to ignore....then, you stop being silly, bid, raise yr max bid if it's eBay (giving yr friend yr wallet to hold at a show does not work, I tried it)....and get it. THEM. It's All Good.

I am a big fan of bare root, by the way.

That mini I think may have violacea for a parent I am seeing for the first time re blooms, is pink....I just came in and took better pic, cause it is day. I do have two other minis, both art shades. Yes, all rescues. Hold on....I will upload, took one along side a standard pink for scale.

It does not look anything like Wildcat "Rainbow" lol.
Plus, all the wildcat varieties have much sharper look.

Your oncidium is Space Race 'Coco'. should be scented.

O! Fascinating! But, it is not at all scented. I will now do a search on that hybrid! Thanks!
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Edit: OK....i see the space race 'coco' which is a Colmanara.....close, but not exact. Mine is more mahogany than red; again, alas, mine is unscented. Hope it's OK I put up something from what I just found.
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Edit: just read the posts on the site on which I found the above, and the owner says no scent! Then, people come forth and say, put it in the sun and small closely. but mine truly has no scent. I need to find a Sharry Baby.:blushing:

Not to insult mine (I love all of mine).....but this space race "coco" I think, is prettier and more vivid than mine.

Wait! I kept delving and found another depiction! and this one, truly does look exactly like mine! So amazing, guys, you both nailed this!:bowing SO impressive!!!!!

I am so grateful!!!:biggrin:

Perhaps mine has no scent cause it was so traumatized from having been mistreated and then discarded...tho that was long ago.

While oncidium space race 'coco' is mericlone, mericlone does not produce exactly the same copy as the mother plant. It is nearly identical.

So there will still be slight difference, say, in the shade of color, the presence of fragrance.

Trust me, yours is space race coco.
It is just maybe a bit dull in color and lost fragrance, but it is.

Even Sharry Baby can be different in how strong the scent is depending on the individual plants.

Even some brassavola nodossa, which is well known for its strong night perfume, has no scent.

Go figure!

I believe you on all counts, Mr. Pundit!:bowing And all you raise=important to know and remember!:biggrin:

I am so happy to finally know the identity of this plant!!!

Regarding your phal, if it's not fragrant, I am not sure that it has phal violacea as a parent. That fragrant quality seems to carry through on all the hybrids of violacea that I have come across, as does the shape of the flowers.

The shape of your flowers looks similar to my Phal. Lioulin Orange which is a hybrid of Phal. Brother Sara Gold and Phal Tzu Chiang Orange. I'm suspecting that one of those hybrids, or a parent of one of those hybrids is in your phal somewhere.

If you're not sure about the fragrance, give it a whiff in the morning just after the sun has had a few minutes to warm up the blooms. My Phal Lioulin Orange smells sort of like oranges mixed with new car scent. It's kinda weird, but it's not a powerful fragrance. :)

Wow! People here have encyclopedic knowledge of cultivars and individual hybrids! And species! Sooooo impressive! I will do the sniff test early tomorrow, thanks!:waving

I am very good at growing them, inventing mad genius techniques, but very lame when it comes to identifying all those I find, not one of which has ever had a label.

It's a very charming wee thing for sure. To me, it just looks not that far from a species not too many generations back.

Thanks again!:biggrin:

Update: Well, I did the sniff test....asked two others to do the same. No fragrance. So now that I have learned this uber thing; if it had violacia prominently in its breeding, it would have at least some fragrance.

My most intensely fragrant orchid hands down: Pot. Hawaiian Charisma 'Hilo Beauty." Hot pink.

OMG. I have two pots now (We do have to divide at some point), blooms all year round, and the fragrance, even just two blooms on one bulb..forget when 2-3 bulbs bloom simultaneously.....infuses the entire apartment for days and days.

I very much appreciate all the help in this! Thing is, they don't really need us to know the formal nuts and bolts to grow wonderfully and be happy and healthy!

PS: I wrongly started a separate thread for the wee pink mini identification.....as I felt it might be against the rules to move to a new topic in a thread. I should not have done that, cause it was redundant.