Laelia Catt? unknown cross
 

This is my first post for an ID although i've lost plenty of tags. I'm particularly fond of this plant: it is a smaller bifoliate with long narrow leaves and small (rupicolous-type) flowers. The sepals are yellow; the lip is lavender purple. Rather like an aurea form of something. I purchased it at the SF Orchid Expo show at least 2 years ago. I thought the vendor was Sunset Valley but Fred Clarke didn't recognize it although he thought the leaves might suggest a brassavola cross. The two photos show (1)the bloom and (2)the relative size as of now. Please excuse its current rattiness- it moved recently along with me. Thanks for any help in identifying my orchid.

I would say that this looks like a pure rupicolous Laelia, but the fact that it's bifoliate makes me question that because most rupics I've seen are all unifoliate. The only suggestion I can think of that would make flowers of that colour and a bifoliate plant would be (Guarianthe aurantiaca x Laelia caulescens). Even then, I have strong doubts.

Thanks
 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the flower does look rupiculous. Few of these have purple lips- laelia mantiqueirae does. The bifoliate, long narrow leaves are are something else. I'm hoping someone has one of these. Mine wasn't the only one offered.

Maybe L. cinnabarina in there? I have an unnamed cross with L. lundii, that looks like this http://orchidcentral.org/Images/Catt...nnabarina).jpg . Yours definitely is not this one, the lip even looks a bit like there might be some L. purpurata in there, but that doesn't explain the bifoliate part. I just went out and looked at my small collection of "rupis" and some - including that unnamed hybrid, L. sanguiloba, and L. mixta have some bifoliate growths. L. mantiqueirae is strongly bifoliate. So looking at your flower, I wonder if it is one of the yellow rupiculous laelias (maybe one of the strongly bifoliate ones) crossed with L. purpurata? There are so many possibilities (and I am far, far from an expert), but it's intriguing. You'll probably never know for sure unless you find one with a tag, but someone who knows a lot more about these than I do might be able to come a lot closer. But if it is mystery to Fred Clarke, I give up... I think he knows more about Catts than just about anybody on the planet.

Looking at the lip on this one, my first thought was that it might have Laelia caulescens in its background; I believe that the species carries more than one leaf as well--similar to Laelia pabstii (Soph. pabstii...probably now Cat. pabstii...); if you think it might be a primary hybrid, I'd throw out L. Itabiritensis as a candidate (L. caulescens x L. fournieri)--the shape of the petals and the lip coloration would be about correct I believe. Just my $.02, I love the flower,
Adam

With that lip, and bifoliate, I think a L. (C.) lundii hybrid is a strong possibility.

thanks
 

Appreciate the input. I spent more time trying to suss out this plant. I found this http://www.flickr.com/foto_bytes/6990812484 which shows a laelia tenebrosa var aurea cross that has something of the coloration. Except that, to my knowledge, the "Laelia micranthum" part is bogus. I think I will rely on the orchid community to provide an answer if one is forthcoming.

Most likely meant to refer to Laelia flava var. micrantha, making the cross Laelia (now Cattleya) Teneflava, but such a cross would not be bifoliate. You could get a flower like this in many ways. The bifoliate habit and very slim pseudobulbs are the clues that might lead you somewhere.