There's a lot of controversy regarding dowiana over the last 150 years (since its discovery in 1850's).
You can read all sorts of tales, books, journals, magazines and papers explaining why they are same and why they are different. The more you read, it further muddies the taxonomic water until it clouds our vision. Very few people walk out unscathed with their own biased interpretations.
Let me then attempt a try to explain logically the current view as I un-biasedly 'interpret' them:
Cattleya dowiana was original described for the large yellow species found in Costa Rica. Two color forms existed here: straw yellow dowiana and red veined rositas.
Cattleya aurea was a sister yellow species that was found 600 miles south in Colombia. Several colors forms were described based on areas found: dureda (large aurea), chrysotoxa (ribbed petals), baudo (whitish tepals), chado sinu (solid yellow lip), rosea (pink lip rim) plus numerous horticultural varieties in the past like 'Statteriana' (which proved to be a semialba Hardyana from jungle hybrid swarms with Cattleya warscewiczii, that grows in same region as aurea).
In this 600 miles area, they find random dowiana sightings, postulating a possible track of dowiana seed dispersion along this corridor, linking the 2 previously assumed allopatric isolation of the two colonies.
The main separation criteria of the two species were:
1. dowiana has bigger straw yellow petals/sepals that were stained with minute red veins, while aurea has pure bright yellow color.
2. aurea lips had more golden veins, sometimes overtaking the red with solid yellow sections, while dowiana has thin coppery yellow veins penciled in the red crimson lip
3. dowiana has shorter and darker bulbs than aurea
4. breeding behaviour differences in which aurea retains more yellow in offsprings, particularly if both F2 has aurea as grandparent.
5. geographic isolation of the colonies
Attempts to separate the two colonies using these criterias proved useless as versions of each type were found within the two colonies. For example a bright pure yellow dowiana with intense gold vein lip and a straw color aurea with mostly red lip were found. The breeding capacities were also linked to particular cultivars where some bright dowianas can outdo some aureas for yellow progeny. Tall and short vegetative growths were found for both types.
As a result of the failure of these separation criterias, the two species are now considered as one, dowiana. The variety aurea is used to section off the 'sympatric' colony found in Colombia, and is 'currently' accepted by Kew's World Checklist of Plants.
So my plant shown above is 'dowiana' from Colombian breeding lines, therefore denoted with varietal designation 'aurea'.
I hope I haven't confused people more with my review above lol.
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