I do this post to avoid cluttering DrLeslieEe’s post on Cattleya warscewiczii semialba ‘Everest’ where I raised a question about a color form in a few Cattleyas called “albo-oculata”. Leslie’s definition of this term was “usually means a white flower with a dark dot inside the throat base”
My interest begins with a near blooming size seedling from an Orchids Limited remake of primary hybrid Cattleya Fabia, which was registered in 1894 as (labiata x dowiana). There was another Fabia registered in 1921 and an Rlc. Fabia in 1924 so this is a messy name for a hybrid.
My seedling was a cross of labiata (albo-oculata) x dowiana var. aurea ‘Jerry’s Best’. When I searched, I found a post on Orchid Board from Mauro Rosim in Brazil on Cattleya labiata albo-oculata where he said “the varietal name refers to the white areas on both sides of the lip forming two ‘eyes’ (oculata)”, and he showed the following picture.
![3420315889_842d390220_b.jpg 3420315889_842d390220_b.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/slippertalk/data/attachments/41/41179-8cfb73d85b44818b17c8a4b32bcda67b.jpg)
The only other Cattleya noted to be albo-oculata I can find is a Cattleya skinneri albo-oculata in Lourens Grobler’s Flickr account that can be seen with the following link. This picture fits Leslie’s definition.
I found a few albo-oculatas in some non-orchid plant groups and they also seem to fit Leslie’s definition best. It doesn’t make sense that there would be a different definition of albo-oculata for labiata than for skinneri, so perhaps Mauro was mistaken.
My interest begins with a near blooming size seedling from an Orchids Limited remake of primary hybrid Cattleya Fabia, which was registered in 1894 as (labiata x dowiana). There was another Fabia registered in 1921 and an Rlc. Fabia in 1924 so this is a messy name for a hybrid.
My seedling was a cross of labiata (albo-oculata) x dowiana var. aurea ‘Jerry’s Best’. When I searched, I found a post on Orchid Board from Mauro Rosim in Brazil on Cattleya labiata albo-oculata where he said “the varietal name refers to the white areas on both sides of the lip forming two ‘eyes’ (oculata)”, and he showed the following picture.
![3420315889_842d390220_b.jpg 3420315889_842d390220_b.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/slippertalk/data/attachments/41/41179-8cfb73d85b44818b17c8a4b32bcda67b.jpg)
The only other Cattleya noted to be albo-oculata I can find is a Cattleya skinneri albo-oculata in Lourens Grobler’s Flickr account that can be seen with the following link. This picture fits Leslie’s definition.
I found a few albo-oculatas in some non-orchid plant groups and they also seem to fit Leslie’s definition best. It doesn’t make sense that there would be a different definition of albo-oculata for labiata than for skinneri, so perhaps Mauro was mistaken.