Monday, March 30, 2015

Grammatoheadia Boynton Leopard, blooming in 2015 with a large inflorescence




Some years ago I brought three seedlings of this orchid because I was intrigued by this cross, which is of genera that are pretty different, Grammatophyllum elegans and Bromheadia findlaysoniana.  The plants grew well, but they took their time blooming.  Last year two of the plants bloomed and I found that they hardly showed any of the traits of Bromheadia.   Nevertheless they are quite pretty and I like them.

One of the plants didn’t bloom last year.  I wondered what was wrong with it since it is getting exactly the same care and environmental conditions as the other two ones.  It seems it only needed a little bit more time.  This year this plant bloomed and produced a very large inflorescence in comparison with the size of its pseudobulbs.  It is comparable to the inflorescence of a full grown Gramm. elegans in size, the flowers however are smaller than that of my plant of Gramm. elegans

This year I have the fortune of having both the Grammatoheadia and Grammatophyllum elegans in bloom at the same time so that I will be able to compare the flowers directly and see the similarities and differences between the parent and the hybrid.

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