Gracias, Thank you and Merci beaucoup, Jim.

Wow, I think I may even be starting to understand this! How's that for amazing?!

Thank you SO very much Jim for all the explanations and research and answers and help!

Now if you could just explain clones, mericlones, crosses, siblings, divisions, etc, etc.....

I have a few that are a species X sibling.....is that still a species or does it become a hybrid at that point??

Patty, check out this website and then re-ask anything you still don't understand. It is a very handy glossary of orchid terms and it should be helpful to many of us.
http://www.beautifulorchids.co...

Jim

If I may - Patty
A species x sib is still a species, not a Hybrid.

Thanks, Ursula. A species x self is still treated as a species too.

Jim

WOW, thank you for all this information. It seems even orchid breeders have a hard time keeping up with the boffins.

I was just looking at a plant on Kawamoto's site and came across this phrase, "evergreen type phalaenopsis dendrobium." It's not easy being green.......

when did those two get together? Was I out of the country then?

This warm growing type of Dendrobium is usually referred to as the Phalaenopsis type Dendrobium. The plant is evergreen and flower spikes emanate from the top of the pseudobulbs on long spikes like a Phal. Sometimes spikes are produced several years in a row from the same pseudobulb. New bulbs also produce new spikes and a large plant can be quite spectacular. A synonym for this is Den. bigibbum.
It can be nicely grown under trees here in Florida.

Jim

Alright, I thought of something else. I am sure you have seen orchid names that included a “var.” or an “f.” followed by a descriptive term. Let me try to explain what this means.

Variation (var.) means there is a difference between this plant and what you would typically expect from the species. Examples include the size of the plant or the size of the flower or perhaps the growth habit of the plant is abnormal. The variation term is not limited to a certain geographical area. So if only plants from the Philippines had a certain trait, “var.” would not be used to describe it. Therefore, Cattleya [C.] labiata var. atropurpurea would be a variation of what you would typically expect from this species orchid.

Form (f.) or forma in Latin, describes a sporadic mutation that can be found from time to time in the general population of a species. It is commonly used for color variations like f. alba. I found an example where both the var. and the f. are included in a single name. Cattleya labiata var. autumnalis f. alba. It is not always restricted to color but it always refers to mutations in the general population. Note that Kew does not recognize variety and form as part of the orchid name but OrchidWiz and most everyone else does. I would certainly want to know if I were buying the alba form of an orchid.

Here are a couple of good references on this subject:

http://orchidkarma.com/about-o...
http://www.cymbidium.org/judgi...

Jim

Good links indeed!

Thank you so much Jim. I am going to have to print all this off and put it in my orchid binder. Thank you again.

There seems to be some grumbling surrounding the names of a couple of orchids I just posted so let's see if I can at least explain what is going on. The first was a Cattleya hybrid named Rhyncholaeliocattleya [Rlc.] Fatari. Last year or so, it would have been called Blc. Fatari, but one of the parents had its name changed from a Blc. to an Rlc. The other parent is a species Cattleya so no problem there. I can trace the problem back 7 generations to a digbiana, whose name was changed from Brassavola to a Rhyncholaelia, thus from a B to an R. Digbiana is such a popular orchid that it has been used in thousands of hybrids so when I see a Blc, I can suspect that it is now an Rlc. So, this one name change has affected 7 generations of names. The name itself is telling us that this orchid is an intergeneric hybrid made by crossing a Rhyncholaelia with a Cattleya. Looking at the profile, Rlc. Fatari is made up of 50% C. walkeriana, 25% C. warscewiczii, and 25% mutt.

Now for the Myc. Luster. The parents are (Cattleya forbesii x Myrmecophila thomsoniana). So, we have a species Cattleya crossed with a species Myemecophila which tells us right away that this is a primary hybrid (the product of two species orchids). Now remember that Myrmecophila is a boffin name for Schomburgkia so what we really have is a Schombocattleya. I hope this helps.

Jim

I like the 25% mutt part. We need a new genera exclusive to our forum "Muttleya".

It could be freely applied to any Cattleya - or any orchid for that matter - who has a name consisting of more than 3 syllables. Or a Cattleya NOID.

Jim, are the boffins adding species names or just rearranging things. By the way I'm in on the "Muttleya" forum

I'm just relieved that most of the growers haven't caught up with the changes. If I want to see a Laelia the west coast growers still list it under Laelia...mostly. When I was searching for Euchile citrina, I found it had been reclassified numerous times. If I had known what to look under, I could have found one easily, but bought a bare root at a show (that was probably illegally harvested), because it had the name I was looking for.

Carol, all you have to do is ask and I'll be happy to look up a name for you.

Jim

Thank you Jim. I'll keep that in mind.

Again..thank you Jim for sharing all this information. Thank you everyone for asking the questions to keep us all updated.