Aulonocara hansbaenschi, Red Shoulder Peacock in an exhibit that shows exotic fish at the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refugee

Approximately male Catasetum Orchidglade intersex flowers

My plant of Catasetum Orchidglade has bloomed many times over the years.  The inflorescence normally bears only male flowers, or infrequently, female flowers.  On very rare occasions the plant has produced intersex flowers.  I don’t know what causes this.  The phenomenon of intersex flowers has fascinated and vexed orchid growers and taxonomists for centuries.  This account is about one time in which my plant produced an inflorescence with a few intersex flowers that were an approximation of the male form.

In this particular inflorescence the first flower opened as an intersex that was almost completely female except for the sepals, petals and a bit of the lip.  But the rest of the flowers in the inflorescence were male flowers with shapes that approximated the shape of a female flower without getting it quite right.  Unfortunately all the male flowers were stripped of their pollen by insects before they opened fully.

But you can see that flowers that were supposed to be quite flat and wide were instead massive and chubby.  Not two flowers of the inflorescence were exactly alike.  The last flowers in the inflorescence had typical male colors and pollen ejection mechanism but their shapes differed wildly from both the typical male and female flower form.

The program that makes the flowers male or female went awry and produced flowers that tried to approximate the female form while preserving the unique characteristics of the male flower.  The result was flowers that were like an intermediate flower designed by a committee.  Even if the flowers had opened fully, the distorted shape means that the insect would not have been in the right position to receive the pollen when the pollen throwing mechanist was triggered.  

Not afraid to show its tougher, larger female side; Cycnoches Jean E. Monnier (Cyc. barthiorum x Cyc. cooperi)

Female flower

Inflorescence of male flowers

Male flowers

The genus Cycnoches produces flower that can be male or female.   The male flowers are normally smaller and more numerous, the female flowers are larger and fewer in number.  My plants of Cycnoches Jeane E. Monnier (Cyc. barthiorum x Cyc. cooperi) would bloom several times a season with inflorescences of small papery male flowers.  But on one occasion one of the plants produced a female flower. 

The plant produced a single female flower.  The female flower was big, much bigger than the male flowers. The floral segments of had a heavier texture and it had a different color than the male flowers.  The male flowers, because they were relatively thin textured become spotted and decay quite easily, the female flower was longer lasting. 

 

My experience cultivating Cycnoches is paradoxical.  They grew well, flowered abundantly and few pests bothered them.  They thrived, that is until they died.  All the plants died the same way.  One day I would find a sunken yellow spot in the stem and in a few days the spot would spread and the plant would rot away.  Cutting the plant in pieces in an effort to save a least a piece, didn’t work.  Some pieces of stem would endure for a time and then they would start producing shoots, only to start rotting away.  Even Cycnoches barthiorum, a plant that I grew for a whole decade in spite of its reputation as a difficult plant, eventually succumbed this way.