Random Q: barkeria intergenerics?
 

So I have a little mounted barkeria 'with love' hybrid that is likely to bloom this fall (knock on wood...). I've only seen barkerias hybridized with other barkerias, but can they hybridize outside their genus?

Barkeria used to be in epidendrum... would an epidendrum be a candidate for intergeneric hybridization? I feel like someone would have done it by now if it were possible.

Thanks!

---------- Post added at 08:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 AM ----------

Quick google search: successful hybrids with Brassavola nodosa and Epidendrum stamfordianum.

Barkeria has been crossed with most of the common genera of the Cattleya alliance, but there haven't been a great number of such hybrids produced. Bardendrum (with Epidendrum) and Cattkeria (with Cattleya) are probably the most common combinations, with about 28 and 19 registered hybrids respectively. I think the (unfortunate, undeserved) lack of such hybrids has more to do with the lesser popularity of Barkeria itself, rather than any lack of charm of the hybrids or particular difficulty making them.

I asked a breeder, who makes 100s of crosses each year, about using reed stems (Epis & Barks) with other Catt genera. He advised that the reed stems strongly dominate in such breeding, so there is not much interest. Even Epi x Sophronitis produces tall reed stems, with barely improved flowers.

IMHO Barkerias deserve and will eventually see more use in hybridization, especially as some of the relatively newer intergeneric lines progress. Like Broughtonia and Encyclia, Barkeria potentially improves count and proportional size of flowers while miniaturizing habit and improving environmental tolerances. Even the larger, more unruly Barkerias stay fairly compact, and the smaller species are downright miniature compared to the average 'reed-stem' Epidendrum.

I suspect the genus is under-utilized to date mainly because few species are widely cultivated, and because breeding goals have shifted somewhat in the last 20 or 30 years. There's often a lot of lag in orchid hybridizing because of the time and resources required to raise successive generations from seed, and uncertain future economic conditions tend to make breeders warier of unproven intergeneric combinations. I'd wager that within my (hopefully long) lifetime, Barkeria spp. will eventually be ancestor to at least as many popular/important hybrids as Brassavola spp., though.

Allen Black is a hobby breeder who's made some interesting and lovely novel intergenerics, most involving Brassavola but a good few with Barkeria as well. I also know of a few professional breeders dabbling in Bark. intergenerics, though for the time being those efforts are very much a sideline to their main business.