Sibling Rivalry

This post is about one of the things that is attracting me to Orchid Breeding: genetic variability.  I have two different specimens of a particular orchid cross blooming right now, and they are an excellent example of the variation that is common.

2 Cattleya Claesiana x Laelia milleri siblings
©2011 MadOrchidist.com

These two plants are siblings from the same cross - Cattleya Claesiana x Laelia milleri.  Both plants are originally from the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate (though I got at least one of them secondhand) and have been grown under similar conditions.  Their site features another flower from this same cross that seems somewhere between my two:

Photo from www.sborchid.com

The blooms vary in most of the parameters one would want to look at: flower count, size, color, orientation, etc.  Even the plants themselves are quite different in size.

Cattleya Claesiana x Laelia milleri
©2011 MadOrchidist.com

The one on the left has a single flower, and it "looks up" in a way that is typical of many of the small rupiculous (rock growing) Laelias, the group to which milleri belongs.  However, milleri has multiple flowers per spike, like the plant on the right.  Those blooms are a salmon-ish pink-ish orange-ish color compared to the cooler pale magenta of the single flower - a color that is probably from the Claesiana parent.

Here they are together in one photo for direct flower size and shape comparison:

Cattleya Claesiana x Laelia milleri
©2011 MadOrchidist.com

I really enjoy the mental exercise of trying to figure out which parent contributed what quality, though it is impossible to know for sure.  You can see, just from these two, that when carefully selecting parents to make a cross you won't always end up with something in between.  You could end up with the best or worst qualities of both, or an interesting shuffle as with these . . .