Oncidium Alliance genus specification/explanation
 

I purchases an orchid at Trader Joe's a couple days ago. Slightly herbal fragrant, my first impression was Oncidium, flat/round slightly wrinkled pseudobulbs with normal purplish speckling, dark purple flower spike stem with maroon flowers that have vivid yellow petal tips and lighter yellow lower skirt in branched sprays. Beautiful plant. After poring over image searches, I'm pretty sure I know what it is:

Wildcat 'Rainbow'. However, that's where I got confused, because the Wildcat 'Rainbow' cultivar is listed as all of the following genera depending on the site accessed:

Oncidium, Odontocidium, Colmanara, and Oncostele.

So I figured out the cultivar, but not the genus? I know the differences between the different options are basically what went into making it, and that they all fall under 'Oncidium Alliance', but I'm hoping someone can help me figure out... if they are all interchangeable, if some are outdated classifications, and what the devil it should actually be called!

Regardless, once it's done being quarantined it's going to be a perfect giant surrounded by my collection of tiny Twinkles. And yes, I do quarantine strictly. I may be a beginner, but I've already encountered what would have been a mealyworm disaster if I hadn't!

You can look up current names at orchidroots.com .

Thank you. That's actually one of the sites that has me confused. It only seems to be listed on the Wildcat page, which makes sense: too many cultivars branching off for each to have its own page. The Wildcat itself is listed as an Oncostele. On the Wildcat's summary page, the 'Rainbow' is listed as a Colmanara, while on the Wildcat's photos page the same photo (and photo origin) is labeled as Oncostele.

It’s simply a matter of the games people play.

All were valid at one time or another, but a taxonomist took a look at some aspect and decided a species plant that had been in one genus was better placed in another. That means that the nothogenus (man-made for combining natural ones) had to be changed.

Once upon a time, there was a species called “Doritis pulcherrima”. Hybrids made with phalaenopsis were thereby labeled as “doritaenopsis”. More recently, a taxonomist felt it was actually a phalaenopsis, so all those “Dtps” hybrids became known as phals.

I speculate that taxonomists have invested heavily in plant tag manufacturers and this is a way to bolster their stock prices.

Where the classifications of orchids (and everything else) used to be based on morphlogy - the structures, more recently scnentists have been able to look at the DNA, and that put relationships in a whole new light. (Birders are running into the same phenomenon) So "follow the science" leads to the renaming (reclassifications) but this makes a really messy situation in the horticultural world. I don't change tags. But the excercise of keeping these information streams straight in my head keeps my mind young.

Looks like Oncostele is the current genus name according to orchidroots. Here is the description from the site:

"The orchid Oncostele Wildcat is a hybrid in the Oncostele genus. registered with the Royal Horticultural Society by Rod McLellan Co. in 1992. Registered parents are Oncostele Rustic Bridge × Oncidium Crowborough (syn Oncidium Crowborough (1965)). The key influencing species of this hybrid are Oncidium fuscatum (25.00% ) Rhynchostele ureskinneri (25.00% ) Oncidium leucochilum (25.00% section: Stellata ) listed in order of their genetic contribution."

What makes this one messy is that the various component species have moved around... Some Odontoglssums got reclassified as Oncidium, or one of them was Lemboglossum now Rhynchostele. Yes, the genus du jour for this one is Oncoostele with the latest round of reclassifications. (Oncidium and Rhyncostele are the ancestral genera left standing) You gotta love it...

Orchidroots are using the most currently accepted names for genera. In this case the current name is Oncostele Wildcat. But the different pictures of the hybrid have been added over several years by different contributors and previously accepted names may have been used. So it happens that the person who contributed the picture of the cultivar ’Rainbow’ used the name Colmanara.

Also, all Oncostele Wildcat constitute the exact same hybrid. No branching should occur because they look different.