Cattleya dowiana var aurea ‘Golden Dragon’s Blood’

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Many thanks Leslie for comment, another difference i can see that dowiana has closed lip aurea has opened lip around the column. Another difficulty that there is geographical overlapping between them.I have two different aureas with opened lip.
That open column on aurea is also mentioned but also occurs in many dowianas. Even the angle of petals being more forward (porrect) and heavily ribbed centrally in aurea occurs in dowiana.

These traits happen in both collected as well as mixed breedings of dowiana with aureas. And therefore not diagnostic.
 
There's a lot of controversy regarding dowiana over the last 150 years (since its discovery in 1850's).

You can read all sorts of tales, books, journals, magazines and papers explaining why they are same and why they are different. The more you read, it further muddies the taxonomic water until it clouds our vision. Very few people walk out unscathed with their own biased interpretations.

Let me then attempt a try to explain logically the current view as I un-biasedly 'interpret' them:

Cattleya dowiana was original described for the large yellow species found in Costa Rica. Two color forms existed here: straw yellow dowiana and red veined rositas.

Cattleya aurea was a sister yellow species that was found 600 miles south in Colombia. Several colors forms were described based on areas found: dureda (large aurea), chrysotoxa (ribbed petals), baudo (whitish tepals), chado sinu (solid yellow lip), rosea (pink lip rim) plus numerous horticultural varieties in the past like 'Statteriana' (which proved to be a semialba Hardyana from jungle hybrid swarms with Cattleya warscewiczii, that grows in same region as aurea).

In this 600 miles area, they find random dowiana sightings, postulating a possible track of dowiana seed dispersion along this corridor, linking the 2 previously assumed allopatric isolation of the two colonies.

The main separation criteria of the two species were:

1. dowiana has bigger straw yellow petals/sepals that were stained with minute red veins, while aurea has pure bright yellow color.
2. aurea lips had more golden veins, sometimes overtaking the red with solid yellow sections, while dowiana has thin coppery yellow veins penciled in the red crimson lip
3. dowiana has shorter and darker bulbs than aurea
4. breeding behaviour differences in which aurea retains more yellow in offsprings, particularly if both F2 has aurea as grandparent.
5. geographic isolation of the colonies

Attempts to separate the two colonies using these criterias proved useless as versions of each type were found within the two colonies. For example a bright pure yellow dowiana with intense gold vein lip and a straw color aurea with mostly red lip were found. The breeding capacities were also linked to particular cultivars where some bright dowianas can outdo some aureas for yellow progeny. Tall and short vegetative growths were found for both types.

As a result of the failure of these separation criterias, the two species are now considered as one, dowiana. The variety aurea is used to section off the 'sympatric' colony found in Colombia, and is 'currently' accepted by Kew's World Checklist of Plants.

So my plant shown above is 'dowiana' from Colombian breeding lines, therefore denoted with varietal designation 'aurea'.

I hope I haven't confused people more with my review above lol.
Wonderful, Leslie. I just copied this out to have in my files. It is a bit like Phrag besseae and dallesandroi. Lump or split. At least you have clear provenance to the Columbian population. Kew still has them split, so a cross with dowiana aurea can have a different name from plain dowiana. My (dowiana aurea x warscewiczii) was technically labeled Semontiana by Orchids Limited and not Hardyana (although they look the same because the yellow rarely comes through).
 
I still think it should be C.aurea because of how it breeds with lavinders and how C.dowiana breeds WCLs.
-Patrick
 
Yes I would separate them too.
For people who don't know C.dowiana var. aurea when crossed with a lavender gives the offspring intense purple color and with C.dowiana there will be a smattering of simi-alba offspring if crossed with a plant that carries simi-alba genes. With other catts only to WCLs crossed together would make WCL offspring but the yellow red lip dowiana seems to be a carrier of WCL genes.
-Patrick
(WCL stands for "white with color lip" now more commonly known as simi-alba)
 
Thanks for the explanations. I have read the same before.
So, I still think they are the same. The fact that either "forms" pop up randomly in both groups show that they are not really separate.
Maybe adding var. aureum to distinguish the more yellow one might be convenient but can be misleading in my opinion.
Does rosita produce regular form when crossed amongst themselves?
This popped up in my mind when I saw a few of them and noticed how different the amount of red and yellow show in the flower among individual plants.
 
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Thanks for the explanations. I have read the same before.
So, I still think they are the same. The fact that either "forms" pop up randomly in both groups show that they are not really separate.
Maybe adding var. aureum to distinguish the more yellow one might be convenient but can be misleading in my opinion.
Does rosita produce regular form when crossed amongst themselves?
This popped up in my mind when I saw a few of them and noticed how different the amount of red and yellow show in the flower among individual plants.
Rositas breed true, all will have ‘peloric’ red petals to various degrees.
 
As Leslie said rosita is a form of the 'typical' dowiana with petals that somewhat mimic the lip.
-Patrick
 
Aurea just breeds so different and has such a light yellow almost green petals and sepals.
-Patrick
 
Aurea just breeds so different and has such a light yellow almost green petals and sepals.
-Patrick
Sometimes white sepals and petals on some rositas too.

I have a division of dowiana rosita ‘Cashen’s’ JC/AOS that I’ve been nursing for over 8 years. Might be strong enough to bloom this coming summer! Fingers crossed 🤞!

Here’s the plant and award photo of flower from AOS as well as an online pic of the mother plant of this division from Steven Christofferson:

8F6FDD20-431F-4070-B6F9-6AA5D20E15EF.jpeg6B100722-89CF-48B9-9453-046076445581.jpegAF959733-4200-4EBE-B45F-CC99B0EEEBE1.jpeg85D525ED-6FD4-437F-B36F-5CD55D7F5314.jpeg
 
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Hard to name it, hard to grow it well, and the flowers last 2 weeks. I must be crazy to be trying to grow one!
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I assume your growing seedling(S) where did you get them? My dowianas died last January with the big snow/ice storm in Virginia. we went 6 days without power and heating and I had just watered. the house went down to 36°F and they rotted.
-Patrick
 
I have a three growth plant that comes from Orchids Limited breeding. So, I bought it as a seedling some years ago and it has grown slowly. The next growth could be large enough, but I cannot keep it warm the whole year. I suspect it will grow OK but that I will have trouble blooming it.
 
I have a three growth plant that comes from Orchids Limited breeding. So, I bought it as a seedling some years ago and it has grown slowly. The next growth could be large enough, but I cannot keep it warm the whole year. I suspect it will grow OK but that I will have trouble blooming it.
Show pic?
 
Sometimes white sepals and petals on some rositas too.

I have a division of dowiana rosita ‘Cashen’s’ JC/AOS that I’ve been nursing for over 8 years. Might be strong enough to bloom this coming summer! Fingers crossed 🤞!

Here’s the plant and award photo of flower from AOS as well as an online pic of the mother plant of this division from Steven Christofferson:

View attachment 37421View attachment 37422View attachment 37423View attachment 37424
Holy Moly! I urgently need one... injected directly into the vein! 🤯

PS. I have two young plants each of the typical and the var. aurea forms...I wonder how old/how large a leaf span, before blooming size?
 
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