Taxonomy question?

[RoyalOrchids]

What is the difference between Phal and a Dpts? They look so similar. Is there a difference in flower structure? I have always wondered this, but I guess a little embarrassed to ask.

Thanks,

[Dorothy]

A Dtps or Doritaenopsis is a hybrid between a Doritis and a Phalaenopsis. (Dtps = Dor X Phal)
So actually, the Phaleanopsis is a parent of the Doritaenopsis ..
that is why they look so similar ..

[RoyalOrchids]

Thanks Dorothy.

[Dorothy]

You are very welcome

[tuvoc]

Dorothy, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I read somewhere recently that most, if not all Doritis were being reconsidered as Phals. Am I really up in the night, or has the name change thing fried my egg?

Kim

[Dorothy]

There seem to be constant changes, you should see what they are doing to the cattleya alliance ..
You are right about Doritis now being considered Phalaenopsis.
I found this -
"The genera Doritis Lindl. and Kingidium P.F.Hunt are now included in Phalaneopsis, based on DNA-evidence (according to the World Checklist of Monocotyledons, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew). (See also ref 1)
However this is not implicitly accepted by every specialist in this field."
(as per Phalaenopsis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

With all the name changes, egg-fry is inevitable

[Rosim_in_BR]

Doritis was a single species genus having only pulcherrima in it and always sounded a bit strange keeping it apart Phalaenopsis. In this case, lumping was a wise decision!

[Jerry Delaney]

Right on Mauro. Also, just one infusion of Doritis into a grex will forever deem the offspring as a Dtps. It's little wonder that numerous generations after that infusion there is little to indicate that there is any Doritis in a hybrid. The same is true however with many of the vanda alliance hybrids.

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by Jerry Delaney

Right on Mauro. Also, just one infusion of Doritis into a grex will forever deem the offspring as a Dtps. It's little wonder that numerous generations after that infusion there is little to indicate that there is any Doritis in a hybrid. The same is true however with many of the vanda alliance hybrids.

So true. After a number of generations no trace of Doritis may show up. And, right, this happens with other genera/species, too.

[shakkai]

It happens with everything. At least with orchids we are fairly certain what the species are - even if the names keep changing. I wanted to have a collection of Hemerocallis (Daylily) species, and when I tried to put together a list of what I needed, I found I couldn't!! The Kew Monocot list doesn't agree with the ARS-grin list, which doesn't agree with the lists of other people who collect/study them (and they don't agree among themselves either) - what a nightmare! Some lists have as many as 40 or more species, other lists as little as less than 20. And the ICRA registering authority doesn't seem to produce a list at all - just dealing with registered hybrids. I had thought that, since the number of species (by anyone's reckoning) is relatively small, it would have been fairly straight forward and definitive (as far as these things go). But it appears that some of the originally described species, were described from either 1) an already dried herbarium sheet, or 2) a plant that had grown in cultivation. Who knows what they were describing, and with native habitat information not included, many things used as the basis for describing a 'species' could just have been interesting individuals withing the spectrum of the range.

Philosophy of taxonomy is fascinating! I especially enjoyed this article: Evolution -- What is a Species and What is Not