lump on cattleya petal
 

Before this flower opened, and about halfway through the bud development, I noticed that the bud was kind of 'sneering' at me. It looked as if the side of one of the outer petals had been sliced slightly to expose the inside of the bud.
Wasn't that noticeable or discolored, so I gave it little thought since I was about to leave for vacation.

Back from vacation, the flower has bloomed, and there is a hard lump on one of the petals.

It cannot be uncurled- it appears as if the petal has been pulled over and fused around something. I cannot find a seam.

Am I playing host to some sort of insect? Or something more sinister, like a virus?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/...be24c298_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4077/...6f282b60_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/...103aa8c2_z.jpg

The plant appears to be thriving in every other way, very vigorous root growth and firm green leaves.

It is a cross from Gold Country Orchids, Slc. Sierra Doll x C. Little Dipper

Very pretty ! as the cells matured the section was not in tune with the rest , might of been a glitch in the genetics causing the fusion .. I am not sure what I am seeing in the first pict. does it have the start of a 2nd lip , yellow in the dip next to the fold over ?..

Thank you!

The first picture is the lump as seen from the back. There is a yellow ridge back there, surrounded by white.

Random genetic mutation was a thought of mine as well, I just wanted to be sure.

I think you mentioned in your other post Izzie that this is the first bloom. If so I'd think that it was a small glitch during the bud formation. There is only one flower on the plants so it is hard to compare.

All else looks fine with you plant. Each new growth is successively bigger than the previous one, no color break in the flower, no streaky leaf colors, no oddly bruised looking new root growth? I don't think virus is an issue, nor insect or vermon.

Probably will not be a issue with the next flowering.

Thanks Dave. The only other odd things are some purple spotting along the midvein of the leaf of that newest growth- which I suspect is just a form of sunburn, Alan told me it was fine.

That's interesting that it might be related to being the first flower- is it more common in early flowerings? Kind of like the plant hasn't sorted things out yet? :lol:

This kind of deformity is actually not common in first flowerings in general.

I think it's just specifically in this particular first flowering of this plant, and I think that's what the other guys are talking about.

I also don't think the flower irregularity and the purple spotting on the leaf is of any great concern as well.

My :twocents:.