As far as we know, yes they were spontaneous. I’m sure that tetraploid plants occur in the wild but if they were like most tetraploid they would be slow growing so at a selective disadvantage.
A tetraploid? Fritz.
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Yes, untreated flasks. Of course, though statistically minuscule. Perhaps others can chime in but there's been a fischeri, a besseae and also a Barbara Leann that were confirmed as spontaneous tetraploids, though the BL might have had a 4N parent.
eds
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Chromosome doubling happens naturally. In the Geranium genus there are species with 2N, 4N, 8N and 16N (and ones with numbers around those multiples. It is possible that they were doublings alongside hybridisation but it is also possible some were natural doublings. Yeo's book 'Hardy Geraniums' contains a lot more info. Whether similar has happened in orchid genera I don't know.
I know that ‘Tesoro Morado’ was a natural plant. Although OL can chemically induce tetraploid conversion at the beginning of seed germination, I don’t think they have done this with kovachii. To emphasize, Jerry and Jason Fischer only mentioned possible tetraploid status for Tesoro Morado because of the nature of the flowers and how long they lasted on the plant. It is very possible that this kovachii is still diploid.
