Cattleya mossiae (coerulea/ceniza)

[terryros]

This is the first bloom of a plant from an Orchids Limited cross (‘Gold Lip’ x ‘Blue Bird’).

I appreciate the genetic difficulties of creating coerulea forms of Cattleya species even though I do not like most of them as much as alba, semi-alba, and rubra forms. DrLeslieEe has explained on Slippertalk that the color we should be looking for is a greyish purple, which doesn’t really look blue to me.



I think the configuration and substance of this flower are OK and it has an upright dorsal. The size is only moderate but may increase with a larger plant.

Leslie said that technically the term “coerulea” should be used for a flower that has white petals and sepals with a greyish blue/purple on the lip. However, I looked at the dozen AOS awarded mossiae labeled coerulea and hardly any have truly white petals/sepals. They all seem to better meet the definition of “ceniza” where the greyish purple is at least faintly on the petals/sepals and lip. “Coerulensis” is for a flower with the lip (and rarely the petals/sepals) having extremely faint greyish blue/purple, looking almost white.

I suspect that AOS and maybe other awarding groups are not interested in noting all the details of the many color forms of various Cattleya species. Coerulea may be an umbrella term for a Cattleya species flower with any amount of greyish purple color anywhere on the flower if there is no other color except yellow in the proximal lip.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Terry, you are correct.

There isn’t any distinction made in AOS for the definition of coeruleas … and any ‘blue’ lip orchid with or without bluish petals is group now in parentheses as ‘Coerulea’.

For all intents and purposes for the sake of judging, this method is more pragmatic and easier than to differentiate the differences of white vs blue petals and sepals.

At the moment, there is no distinction made for rewarding overall bluer flowers with more or less points in the ceniza category. The only situation that may incur this is if the siblings were compared from the same parents and where one is ‘more’ bluer than the other.

 

[NEslipper]

Agree the upright petals are very pleasing! It almost looks like there are some flares at the tips of the petals, is that real or am I just imaging things?

 

[terryros]

Agree the upright petals are very pleasing! It almost looks like there are some flares at the tips of the petals, is that real or am I just imaging things?

Tiny pinincelada at the tip of the dorsal.

 

[terryros]

Terry, you are correct.

There isn’t any distinction made in AOS for the definition of coeruleas … and any ‘blue’ lip orchid with or without bluish petals is group now in parentheses as ‘Coerulea’.

For all intents and purposes for the sake of judging, this method is more pragmatic and easier than to differentiate the differences of white vs blue petals and sepals.

At the moment, there is no distinction made for rewarding overall bluer flowers with more or less points in the ceniza category. The only situation that may incur this is if the siblings were compared from the same parents and where one is ‘more’ bluer than the other.

OK: any amount of the greyish purple on the flower, with no anthocyanins (red/brown) or chlorophylls (green) will be called (coerulea). There can be some carotene (yellow) in the proximal lip?

 

[DrLeslieEe]

OK: any amount of the greyish purple on the flower, with no anthocyanins (red/brown) or chlorophylls (green) will be called (coerulea). There can be some carotene (yellow) in the proximal lip?

Yes, yellow is fine.

If you look carefully, there is some muted red tones on some coeruleas. As long as there is a grey film OVER them.

 

[cborchids]

And then there's the light under which you see it. I had fun a few years ago photographing the same flower of C. mossiae coerulea 'Peachy Blue' AM/AOS under open sky vs in direct sun. The color is quite different, peachy in sun and really blue (ish) in open skylight.