Saturday, November 1, 2008

Pretty picture: Yet another NOID orchid


I don't know anything about this one. It does have an ID tag in the pot, but the ID tag identifies it as one of the orchids I've already blogged about: Bakerara Truth 'Silver Chalice'). So I know it's not that. (Sometimes tags fall out of the pots and we have to guess which plant to put them back into; sometimes customers pick them up to read them and then stick them any old place, not bothering to get the tag back in the right pot or anything. If the plant's not actually blooming, we have very little way to ascertain whether the tag is misplaced or not.) It seems like maybe a Brassia, or something with some Brassia genes, but I'm not going to try to get a closer ID than that; trying to identify NOID orchids in a serious way probably leads to madness. I welcome rampant baseless speculation though, if anybody wants to throw out an idea, or a half-dozen ideas, in the comments.

UPDATE: There's fairly conclusive evidence that this is a Miltassia of some kind (Miltassia = Miltonia x Brassia), very possibly (but not definitely) Miltassia Shelob 'Tolkein.'

Hat tip to telipogon, in comments.


5 comments:

Shibaguyz said...

I can really see these being an obsession of ours if we aren't careful. So fascinating with all their different colors, shapes and patterns. Thanks for sharing them!

Oh! the "This is water. This is water." speech: thank you for sharing that. We forwarded it on to just about everyone we know. Indeed... life before death is the real issue at hand... this is water... rather than waiting for something bigger to happen on the other side. Wonderful speech.

telipogon said...

This *looks* like Miltassia Shelob 'tolkien' to me. Miltassia (Miltonia x Brassia), definitely. Cool grower, will tolerate warmer temperatures generally, appreciates a summer outside in Britain, so presumably where you are too. Well worth growing, very reliable bloomers, often every 9 months with the right treatement.

mr_subjunctive said...

telipogon:

I agree that it looks very related to Milt. Shelob 'Tolkein.' Don't remember ever seeing that tag floating around before, but it could be a plant that's been with us for more than a year, too. Some of them have.

shibaguyz:

Yes, definitely. And don't forget the scents: we only just noticed a couple days ago that the Zygoneria I wrote about in June has scented flowers (to me, they smell kind of like lilac or petunias or something; I couldn't get anybody to agree with me on that, though, and nobody offered any alternative descriptions).

As for the speech: yeah. It seemed important enough to post a link to. Though I am, like most people, very bad at remembering it when in a frustrating or unpleasant situation.

telipogon said...

Trouble with orchids is that the get sold with the wrong tags on before they even get to garden centers, i bet it said 'cambria' ?

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

I don't know one orchid from another, but that sure is pretty.