Cattleya percivalliana albescens ‘Oro blanco’

[monocotman]

Another catt flowering early but very well with the biggest new growth it’s ever produced. It may be approaching its full potential. It has the usual mushrooms scent of this species.

David

 

[dodidoki]

Very nice delicate pinkish flush on lips!!! Strange i have a pure alba form with the same clonal name.

 

[Ozpaph]

Delightful!!

 

[monocotman]

It was a freebie as a small division from Max Strauss

 

[monocotman]

Salabat on Flickr has a photo of this plant and it is albescent.

 

[dodidoki]

Salabat on Flickr has a photo of this plant and it is albescent.

Here is my oro blanco, from Elsner Orchids

 

[papheteer]

BEAUTIFUL! Your plants are looking better and better! I must admit Cattleyas are becoming my favorites lately!

 

[southernbelle]

Really lovely David. Well grown and beautiful bloom!! Kudos!

 

[monocotman]

Thanks guys this clone is really growing on me!
Dodidoki, I wonder which clone is correctly labelled?
it could just be two separate people thinking up the same clonal name.

 

[dodidoki]

Thanks guys this clone is really growing on me!
Dodidoki, I wonder which clone is correctly labelled?
it could just be two separate people thinking up the same clonal name.

I looked after.Oro Blanco means White Gold. It is a selected breeding line. Aim was to make pure white albas but many of plants can produce few anthocyan growing in bright light.

 

[NEslipper]

Steven Christoffersen has sold several divisions of this plant on Ebay and his photo also clearly shows a light pink splash on the lip. His description starts out, "This famous beauty looks like an alba but the petals and sepals are blushed with a soft lilac which is barely noticeable. This flowers trademark is the solid yellow lip".

 

[monocotman]

The plot thickens!

 

[Guldal]

Both your flowers are splendiferous, David and Istvan, and would be pure gold in any collection!

Istvan's flower, though, seems more immediately/intuitively to correspond to the clonal name.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

This beautiful well-known cultivar from Venezuela is the albescent form, not alba.

The pink will come more with brighter light. Even in flowers that look alba, a backlit flower will likely show some pink somewhere (like the lip bottom or sepals).

Caveat: It can rarely bloomed completely alba sometimes but will resort to some pink in subsequent bloomings.

 

[monocotman]

Thanks for the info Leslie, the pink seems to show up in the second indoor photo.

 

[Guldal]

Caveat: It can rarely bloomed completely alba sometimes but will resort to some pink in subsequent bloomings.

Another caveat: if we follow the strict nomenclatura propagated by some eminent botanists within Paphiopedilum (Gruß, Braem), it can NEVER bloom completely alba - as this term in botany is exclusively reserved for plants that blooms without any colour pigmentation, i.e. with completely and all white flowers.
I guess a proper designation for David's and Istvan's flowers would be 'alboflava' (white and yellow). At least if you can't detect any pinkish blush, as mostly seems to be the case with Istvan's flower. Otherwise, probably, the correct designation might be 'alboflavescens' - or maybe 'flavoalbescens' would be even more appropriate as the yellow colour is certainly and fully present, while the slightly pinkish hue seems to affect only the white segments of David's flower (albecens means whittish/close to be(coming) white)!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Another caveat: if we follow the strict nomenclatura propagated by some eminent botanists within Paphiopedilum (Gruß, Braem), it can NEVER bloom completely alba - as this term in botany is exclusively reserved for plants that blooms without any colour pigmentation, i.e. with completely and all white flowers.
I guess a proper designation for David's and Istvan's flowers would be 'alboflava' (white and yellow). At least if you can't detect any pinkish blush, as mostly seems to be the case with Istvan's flower. Otherwise, probably, the correct designation might be 'alboflavescens' - or maybe 'flavoalbescens' would be even more appropriate as the yellow colour is certainly and fully present, while the slightly pinkish hue seems to affect only the white segments of David's flower (albecens means whittish/close to be(coming) white)!

This doesn’t apply to alba cattleya flowers which will always have yellow in lip lol.

 

[Guldal]

This doesn’t apply to alba cattleya flowers which will always have yellow in lip lol.

I know, Leslie...but I wonder, whether this holds true in a strict botanical sense? This would demand that these yellow-throated albino forms of the plant have been described and published validly as alba forms in accordance with the ICBN (International Code of Botanical Nomenclatura). Otherwise, I guess, we are dealing with what rightly might be considered a horticultural colourform?
Now there is a little digging for you to do!

"Always"? I wonder, whether the use of categorical statements in matters like these, always, is a wise thing?
What do you fx. think of this Catt. intermedia fma. alba 'Graue' SM/DOG - the photo of Hilmar Bauch's (Asendorfer Orchideenzucht) wonderful plant, that I hope he will forgive me borrowing for the sake of argument:

 

[Guldal]

This doesn’t apply to alba cattleya flowers which will always have yellow in lip.

As Olaf (ORG) is one of those arguing very convincing about albinism in Paphiopedilum and the more exclusive use of the term 'album', maybe you could ask him, what he thinks of the matter within the genus Cattleya?

 

[terryros]

Copying from a 2014 Australian Orchid Review piece by Guido Braem (I am guessing the horse is too far out of the barn to pull it back in on this one).

albino: by botanical definition, a plant that lacks the possibility to produce anthocyanin pigments. It should be noted that plants have 3 groups of pigments, being

1. (a) anthocyanins, responsible for the red and brown shades,
2. (b) carotenes, responsible for the yellow colours, and
3. (c) chlorophylls, responsible for the “greens”.

Therefore, a plant correctly designated as an albino will not show any red or brown colour but can very well be green, yellow, white, or any combination thereof. As soon as any shade of red occurs anywhere in any part of the plant, the specimen is not an albino.

alba, album or albus (depending on the gender of the genus): a Latin word that simply means “white”. This term, as far as orchids are concerned, is used in connection with the colour of the flower. Only flowers that are pure white should be designated as alba/album. “Alba/album” plants are albinos, but we have already established that albinos are not necessarily “alba/album”

albinistic: a term that is used in various ways. The correct usage is for the designation of an albino or “alba/album”. This term can, therefore, be used for a yellow/green/white plant or an all-white plant. Unfortunately, the term “albinistic” is often erroneously used to designate a plant that is faintly but normally coloured.

A Cattleya that is white with yellow in the lip would seem to be an albino, but not an alba, according to Dr. Braem.