Catasetum Brent's Black Hawk

[AdamD]

Hermaphrodites! This is the first time I've had hermaphroditic flowers on a catasetum. Now I can say for sure that light levels play a role in the formation of male vs. female flowers. I have two other plants after this one which will have hermaphroditic or female flowers. They were all setting male buds when I overexposed them, light levels were about 8000 fc for 3 days, you can see by the sunburnt leaves in the photo. It was half intentional, half accidental. I wanted to see what they could take and pushed it a bit too far too fast. Ah well. Thank the good Lord for making this group forgiving.

I've harvested this pollen (you can see in the flower in the foreground the anther cap is gone), and I've put mormodes pollen on to test the effectiveness of the female mechanism, I don't know how fertile hermaphroditic flowers are. We'll see!

 

[paphioboy]

Nice... Interesting that the floral parts could still change even after they have been pre-determined, as you mentioned 'They were all setting male buds when I overexposed them'..

 

[AdamD]

I was shocked too. I think that if the spike had been younger the buds would have gone fully female. Who knows. I sent a pic to Stephen Moffitt, he was shocked at the symmetry and uniformity of all the reproductive segments. He said usually hermaphrodites lean one sex or another on any given flower on the same spike.

 

[Ozpaph]

very nice and interesting

 

[SlipperFan]

Very nice color!

 

[abax]

Did the over exposure affect the color of the flowers at
all?

 

[AdamD]

Did the over exposure affect the color of the flowers at
all?

It very well may have softened the color. This is the first time this division has bloomed for me, so I have nothing to compare it against. The spotty discoloration is from insecticide. For reference to male blooms, this is the exact division I bought from Stephen Moffitt a year ago

http://catasetinae.com/image-viewer.htm?offerings/F31-1.jpg

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

"Holy Exposure Batman" I love the color combination.