Nothing new and exciting blooming Downunder?

[MrCym]

Gary, have you seen natural hybrids of Cym. canaliculatum with either of the other Australian species?

The super strain of Kuranda came from a pod on Cym. suave harvested by Alex Szabo and given to me. We could see when the seed germinated so profusely and grew so vigorously that it surely wasn't a pure Cym. suave. I credit James Rose for twigging to that!

In all the Cym Kuranda 'Chu Ka-wai' clones treated with Oryzalin, we have only seen one 4n to date! Very frustrating! But let me share a trick using the diploid form pollen.... really load up the stigma of any chosen parent (with up to five pollen masses) and you'll likely get a pod to form on any fertile pod parent!

[Gary S]

I am not aware of any natural hybrids between the 3 Australian Cym species, I have asked Ken Russell about this a few years ago and he has never seen any. I would expect it to be just about impossible as the growing regions for the 3 species don't really overlap to any great degree. Maybe the only faint possibility would be the inland southern form of canaliculatum and suave that occur in several localities in NSW close to each other - maybe 20kms apart, but that is a long distance for a native bee, that might carry pollen to fly to land on the flower of the other species.

In general terms the distance between colonies of one of the species is 100's of kilometers to a colony of the other 2 species.

[sabredance2]

Gary, check your PM.

[Gary S]

Nothing in my Inbox Sabre.

Now it is there and replied to, thanks Graham.

[OrchidWise]

To the best of my knowledge, Kevin only ever used erythraeum var. flavum (particularly 'Paradise'), not erythraeum var. erythraeum. This is likely not one of his crosses, although he definitely made the original Cym. Toni Benton. I tried to note all the primaries using the two species here:

https://www.cosv.com.au/species-profiles/cym-erythraeum

If erythraeum and flavum are ever split again (which they should be, based on both morphological and genetic evidence), then this hybrid will be unnamed.

Here is the email response from Stephen Early in relation to the above.....adds a little more clarity.

The Toni Benton was purchased as an iridiodes well over 30 years ago from Sandon Exotics and I was warned it was different. I gave it the variety name Sandon and ended up selling quite a few pieces. I then got suspicious and stopped selling it and selfed the plant. As soon as the first seedling flowered I was easily able to identify it as it had the properties of both parents which I grow.

[MrCym]

I wonder why nobody in Australia has commented on this:

If one crosses Cym. madidum album with Cym. canaliculatum album, all the resultant seedlings come regularly colored?

[sabredance2]

Surely a typo.

[Australis]

I wonder why nobody in Australia has commented on this:

If one crosses Cym. madidum album with Cym. canaliculatum album, all the resultant seedlings come regularly colored?

Probably because so few people have access to both plants and the seedlings.

I have spoken to several expert growers of canaliculatum - particularly Ken Russell and Russell Lynch, who have surveyed a large number of them in the wild - and my current hypothesis is this:

- Cym. canaliculatum has three different alleles for anthocyanin expression: regular colouration, albinistic (like floribundum var. album) and true alba.
- Cym. canaliculatum is almost certainly not in the main alba group; instead, it might be in the aloifolium alba group. Justin Priddy is growing out seedlings of this cross and we will know soon enough.

The species has both green and yellow base colours and both of these have been reported to have albinistic forms (i.e. faint markings that do not consistently show year to year depending on conditions).

[Gary S]

Well that is as good as an hypothesis that I have heard Joshua.

I think I might have some seedlings of the cross you mention from Justin - I will have a look for them tomorrow.

What a great PhD subject for a budding University student doing Botany - although I suspect the number interested in Orchid research would be very small or non existent.

[MrCym]

I'm going to jump in here Gary and track in a most interesting direction......

Fisrtly, we shared the information some yeeas ago now that when none of the Wimber Day 6n and 3n seedlings came as genetic albas, it was pretty clear that Cym. kanran album was in a second alba group. Nobody else was talking about this at the time. Call me suspicious but my mind works in fits and starts these days so let me take you back to the late 1970's!

The local CA judging had put forward a very well qualified candidate for the Eric Young Orchid scholarship. The young lady's name was Mary Nisbet. I was on one of my regular visits to Pommieland and the nurseries of Keith Andrew and the Rittershausens. I was at the RHS monthly judging where I learned that a young man had been selected and Mary placed second. It was judging time and the gin-riddled Chair of the RHS Orchid Committee, one Maurice Mason, was getting things underway. There was this somewhat drippy young fellow fluffing around and Mason told him to hurry up and take the plant down in front of the Orchid Committee's dull eyes. He proceeded to embarrass and bluster the poor fellow all meeting.I actually felt sorry for him and tried to help him with basic matters. Then I found out he was in fact the selected EYOF visiting student and his name was Randall Robinson. As a sidebar, Mary Nisbet is a career orchidist, still growing and showing her plants from a nursery just north of San Francisco.

Time passed. I was amazed to find that someone named Randall Robinson had appeared in Victoria and gained an MSc. and even a Ph.D. Could it be? Indeed it was. My friends in the judging group initially were thrilled to welcome a person with international orchid experience. But then reality set in. I started hearing about all sorts of judging mixups, a serious lack of grounding in basic orchid knowledge exhibited by said Dr. Robinson. Ha Hardy, ha ha.

The Devil got on my shoulder last evening, after I had typed a huge seedling list for the plants being potted in California at Cal-Orchid, so I did some online research. You can tell a lot about an orchidist by their nominated contacts. When I see Joseph Arditti listed as a key knowledge source, I know another lightweight had found him. The rest of the most frequently cited orchid experts of RR were totally obscure. He had the gall to actually state he had a particular interest in "genetics of the genus Cymbidium"!! Good God, I doubt this person could recognize Cym. i' ansonii if it bit him!

My curiosity being aroused, I searched out papers where Dr. Randall was listed as an author. In almost all of them, he was listed third or fourth. That means he probably corrected the spelling of a couple of species. And what position does this super Scientist now occupy? I kid you not, he is showing up as Executive Director, (INTERIM!!), Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities. God help us all. Now I know all my Victorian orchid judge friends gave him the arse long ago but I am a teensy bit suspicious he may still be scamming one or two of the NHO Forum members.....

End of my hijacked response.