tranlienianum hybrids

[reivilos]

Can someone explain why so few tranlienianum hybrids have been registered ?

 

[TyroneGenade]

Because they are ugly? oke:

 

[tomkalina]

Not many floral characteristics there that I'd like to see in a hybrid.....

 

[reivilos]

Because they are ugly? oke:

Yet people have registered uglier things in the past.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Yet people have registered uglier things in the past.

I must concede that point. There are many concolor hybrids that should never have seen the light of day...

I guess the reason for the lack of tran. hybrids must be a dearth of curiosity.

 

[SlipperFan]

Or a lack of good tranlienianum flowers?

 

[labskaus]

To me, tranlienianum as a flower is still a bit on the 'bizarre' side, even after many years of getting used to it. There are other species that remain compact and make nice clumps, like helenae or barbigerum/coccineum. These inherit desirable features (yellow colour in helenae, red dorsal in coccineum, straight petals,...), whereas I have a hard time finding anything in tranlienianum that I would like to see in a hybrid. Dosal is much recurved (like in spicerianum or barbigerum) but smaller. The petals, while broader than in helenae, are quite wavy, and the colour is not stanidng out.
Apparently, many features of tranlienianum get washed out in the first generation.
I'm aware of three tranlienianum hybrids. Paph. Anja Bauch (wardii x tran) makes smallish flowers which are typical of this kind of crosses. The crosses with helenae and spicerianum look like poor versions of these species to me.
I won't rule out that somebody might come up with a breath-taking tranlienianum cross one day (maybe with a Brachy?), but in general these few crosses show me that tranlienianum does not improve a cross in any respect.

 

[Chicago Chad]

Or a lack of good tranlienianum flowers?

I think that is part of it too Dot. The brown ones leave little to work with but I saw a purple clone that looked much more promising.

 

[troy]

Tranlienianum will grow on you, look at maudies, people still grow those

 

[slippertalker]

I would think that it might have some interesting progeny in the proper combination. If it is used in a similar manner to Paph spicerianum, some interesting progeny should be possible. Combinations with complex hybrids might be worth doing.