Grammatoheadia Boynton Leopard, my plant that has the largest flowers and inflorescences

When I brought this plant I decided to buy three plants because I wanted the see the variation of the flowers. One plant, the one on this photos, produces large inflorescences with deeply colored flowers.   Another produces smaller flowers on shorter inflorescences, the last one bloomed and then deteriorated and almost died.  All are cultivated the same way and were grown on the same spot.

Grammatoheadia Boynton Leopard, with most of its flowers opened.

Most of the flowers of the inflorescence of my plant of Grammatoheadia Boynton Leopard are now opened.  Although initially the inflorescence had about seventy five buds, it started dropping a number of them at the tip after most of the flowers were open.  I don't now if this is a natural occurrence or because I moved the plant from its original location to a place next to the house. and hanged it in a shady spot.

I was surprised that the flowers all turned toward the direction of the strongest light.  That means that on one side of the inflorescence you are looking at the flowers front and on the other you are looking mostly at their backs.  This inflorescence has a number of flowers that surpasses the inflorescences of all my other Grammatophyllum, except the massive inflorescence of Gramm. speciosum.  However this plant is positively tiny compared with an adult speciosum.

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.

Here is a link to a plant that bloomed in 2014

Grammatoheadia Boynton Leopard a cross of Grammatophyllum elegans and Bromheadia findlaysoniana

Under my climatic conditions, at a 1,000 feet of altitude, near the center of the island of Puerto Rico, this hybrid has proved to be easy to grow.  However it demands good fertilization if the pseudobulbs are to grow to blooming size.  That is the trick with growing and blooming these orchids, when they are in their growth phase they need regular watering and fertilizing coupled with bright light to produce pseudobulbs large enough to bloom.  If neglected they will grow but their pseudobulbs will not reach their full potential and they might not bloom.  This plant gets full sun in the morning from 8:00 am until 11:00 am.  After the pseudobulbs reach their full size I stop fertilizing.  It is a cross between a Grammatophyllum and a Bromheadia, but I see little of the Bromheadia in these flowers.