Oryzalin treated Cattleya warscewiczii ('Alexander's Variety' x 'Michael' AM/AOS)

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This is a first bloom of a plant I bought as a seedling from Orchids Limited but they did not make the cross. The natural horizontal width is 17.5 cm and the natural vertical height is 17.5 cm. I think it is a typical lavender color for the species with mildly prominent yellow eyes. The substance is rather light.
IMG_2136.jpeg

Here is the award photo for warscewiczii ‘Michael’ AM/AOS achieved by William Rogerson in 2005.

https://op.aos.org/AQapp_Images/Low_Res/AQI_003/20050885.jpg

The award flower had a natural horizontal width of 17.5 cm and natural vertical height of 17.2 cm. I think the color is typical lavender and the substance was described as average. The yellow eyes are prominent.

The next link is to an online picture of ‘Alexander’s Variety’ which has not been AOS awarded. The picture shows a darker lavender flower with less prominent yellow eyes than ‘Michael’.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/89/ce/f7/89cef70b3bd1099680733d18b4b393b9.jpg

At least five different chemicals have been used to increase the chromosome count in various species of orchids: colchicine, oryzalin, trifluralin, propyzamide, amiprofos-methyl. Oryzalin was used to treat the seedlings from which my plant comes.

This is not an easy process, and it does not guarantee success. The correct protocorm or protocorm-like body must be selected during the seed germination or mericloning process. The optimal concentration of each agent and the time it needs to remain in contact with the protocorms seems to be different with different species. The protocorms can be destroyed, they may not convert to polyploid at all, or some or many of the plants may be polyploid.

I don’t think the leaves of my plant look different from my mature warscewiczii (‘Firmin Lambeau’ x ‘Kathleen’) which has bloomed for me, and the flower substance is certainly not thicker. My plant’s flower size is large for a first bloom. I need to see several more flowerings to be sure, but I think my plant did not increase in “ploidy” from what the parents brought to the breeding.
 
Lovely thing Terry!
Do you know of any confirmed tetraploid warscewiczii clones out there?
It would be good to know what one looked like,
David
In my reading I found a recent article that said there are only two unusual species (one was tigrinum) that had published confirmed tetraploid conversion. So, most of our standard unifoliate species that have been colchicine, oryzalin, et etc. treated haven’t confirmed conversion with chromosome counts or certainly DNA analysis. It is all an assessment of the leaves and flowers. Shorter, denser leaves with denser stomata, higher substance flowers, sometimes larger, and often longer lasting. When you look at the lab conditions required, they are quite trial and error and I can see why they might often fail.
 
I think that is the problem. I am familiar with stethoscopes and lab research work so have read the procedures used to count orchid chromosomes. It is not easy. Not very many have the equipment, chemicals, etc. There is also minimal financial incentive to doing it. I think many suspect that some of our greatest old breeding plants had some extra genetic material, but none of those plants could be tested at the time. The just looked different. Some still exist but I don’t think any have been reputably tested and published. To prove that something is a triploid or tetraploid means you have good knowledge of what diploid is, and that requires a group of known, native collected plants. And, in a collection of native plants there could even be natural polyploids that developed. I know that Jerry Fischer has a trianae that is the largest one he has ever seen with heavy substance and maybe the plant is a little different. It comes out of the ‘Cashen’s’ selfing that some one made and I think they colchicine treated it just for fun. Jerry is trying to arrange genetic testing for it compared to some old trianae plants with direct native environment collection a long time ago. This might show an increase in DNA content, but it doesn’t give chromosome counts. I can only find a few research labs that have published on chromosome counts. Maybe some of you know people have become expert at doing it?
 
This is a first bloom of a plant I bought as a seedling from Orchids Limited but they did not make the cross. The natural horizontal width is 17.5 cm and the natural vertical height is 17.5 cm. I think it is a typical lavender color for the species with mildly prominent yellow eyes. The substance is rather light.
View attachment 34275

Here is the award photo for warscewiczii ‘Michael’ AM/AOS achieved by William Rogerson in 2005.

https://op.aos.org/AQapp_Images/Low_Res/AQI_003/20050885.jpg

The award flower had a natural horizontal width of 17.5 cm and natural vertical height of 17.2 cm. I think the color is typical lavender and the substance was described as average. The yellow eyes are prominent.

The next link is to an online picture of ‘Alexander’s Variety’ which has not been AOS awarded. The picture shows a darker lavender flower with less prominent yellow eyes than ‘Michael’.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/89/ce/f7/89cef70b3bd1099680733d18b4b393b9.jpg

At least five different chemicals have been used to increase the chromosome count in various species of orchids: colchicine, oryzalin, trifluralin, propyzamide, amiprofos-methyl. Oryzalin was used to treat the seedlings from which my plant comes.

This is not an easy process, and it does not guarantee success. The correct protocorm or protocorm-like body must be selected during the seed germination or mericloning process. The optimal concentration of each agent and the time it needs to remain in contact with the protocorms seems to be different with different species. The protocorms can be destroyed, they may not convert to polyploid at all, or some or many of the plants may be polyploid.

I don’t think the leaves of my plant look different from my mature warscewiczii (‘Firmin Lambeau’ x ‘Kathleen’) which has bloomed for me, and the flower substance is certainly not thicker. My plant’s flower size is large for a first bloom. I need to see several more flowerings to be sure, but I think my plant did not increase in “ploidy” from what the parents brought to the breeding.
Nice to see you’ve been successful with this one, I killed mine. 🙃
 

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