phrag besseae

[cnycharles]

the bud opened on my besseae, and the flowers don't look too much different than the ones of my supposed dalessandroi/besseae mix(?). The center of my besseae actually has more of a yellow 'blaze' type-thing going on than my 'dallensandroi', which is pretty uniform.

flower is larger and darker than the other mixed plant

side view

 

[SlipperFan]

Because of the time when d'alessandroi was thought to be a form of besseae, I wonder how many true besseaes there are anymore.

 

[Heather]

Reserving judgement. Will talk to the buyer of the besseae river this weekend and see if I can get his opinion....

 

[rdlsreno]

Pretty!!

Ramon

 

[JeanLux]

Whatever! It is nice!!! Jean

 

[Berrak]

Agree - Its nice.

My bessae will flower for the first time within some weeks.

 

[NYEric]

Yay bess..daless...WTF!??

 

[cnycharles]

Yay bess..daless...WTF!??

yes, I agree. kind of like spiranthes cernua all sorts of different but still the same thing

 

[Kyle]

I wouldn't rely on the 'blaze of orange' to tell the plants apart. I think it was just coincedence that the early plants discribed has this feature. I have seen many dalessandrois without it. And besseaes in the wild, with it.

Things like the staminode, pouch shape and how the flowers are held are more reliable.

Where did this besseae come from?

Kyle

 

[cnycharles]

I forgot to include the name before; it's 'wings of fire' am/rhs x self
from Glen Decker

 

[smartie2000]

possibly 'wings of fire' was not dalessandroi, but maybe a mix of besseae and dalessandroi?
Paramount orchids has a photo of a sibbling plant: http://www.paramountorchids.com/jpg/Phrag%20besseae%20'Wings%20of%20Fire'%20x%20self1.jpg

 

[cnycharles]

thanks for the link. when I was checking out a dalessandroi picture on the www.phragweb.info site, I happened to look up at the two plants of mine in flower, and was struck at how much the profile of my besseae 'wings of fire' looked like the dalessandroi in the picture. now that was the plant that I was sure was 'just' a besseae, but now I'm not sure if I have a clean one or not. both the besseae and dalessandroi have the downswept petals look, but are on plants with definite stolonous growth
*sigh*
i was also looking at a supposed dalessandroi on ebay today and the flower shown also looked like those on my two plants, but didn't really look like dalessandroi to me. don't know where any can be found, either