Need help identifying a Cattleya

[CroixNoire]

Hello, fellow orchid lovers and enthusiasts! Thank you so much for having me. I need help identifying a Cattleya, or at least that's what my late grandfather called it. My grandfather was an avid orchid grower and I'm the only one in the family who seemed to have picked up his hobby. I've been a gardener my whole life, but I'm relatively new to cultivating tropical orchids.

The Cattleya pictured below is probably close to a hundred years old and it's the lone survivor in my grandfather's collection. Most of his orchids died after he passed away since no one knew how to care for them. His last Cattleya currently resides in the Philippines and I plan to bring a piece of it back with me to Canada someday.

However, it does bother me that I don't know which species or hybrid it is or even if it's a Cattleya at all. As a plant biologist, I have this compulsive need to know all of my plants' scientific names. I've tried Google Image search and it came back as Cattleya purpurata, but looks nothing like the results I got. Any help in identifying this beauty would be greatly appreciated

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

That is a beautiful flower, and it's nice to know it's something from your grandfather. It is in the Cattleya alliance, but appears to be a hybrid. The lip color and shape is indeed somewhat reminiscent of the unifoliate species Cattleya purpurata and C. percivaliana, but it has the column exposed, which is seen in other species like C. intermedia, loddigesii and walkeriana. The other flower parts look more like a unifoliate Cattleya than a bifoliate.

You will never be sure of the name without a label. You don't know whether your grandfather started with a unique seedling, or a division of another plant. Many hybrids look so similar to each other they are difficult to tell apart.

You could try to look up hybrids that were registered before your grandfather acquired the plant, and see which might be similar.

An excellent site for looking at orchid species is the International Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia, IOSPE, orchidspecies.com .

[CroixNoire]

Thank you so much for the swift reply. At least I know for sure it's a Cattleya. My grandfather was growing orchids way before I was born. But if I had to guess, it's very likely a division. I remember all of his orchids as mature, blooming plants mounted on logs with concrete bases so they didn't topple over. I don't ever recall him growing anything resembling an orchid seedling. I'll look into the websites you provided. Thank you again