TABLE 1-3 The Components of a Hybrid Orchid’s Name
| Part of Name | Name | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Genus | Rhyncholaeliocattleya | This genus combines two different genera — Rhyncholaelia and Cattleya — to result in the human-made name of Rhyncholaeliocattleya. The name is capitalized, in Latin, italicized, and frequently abbreviated Rlc. |
| Species | None | This is a hybrid that has several different species in its parentage, so no single one is listed. When an orchid hybrid comes from just one species, the species name will also be listed, lowercase, in italics, and in Latin. |
| Grex | Cynthia | All the resulting progeny from this cross are given a name that’s known as a grex. Think of this as you and all your siblings having a label. The grex is always written in a language other than Latin, is capitalized, and isn’t in italics. |
| Cultivar (cultivated variety) | ‘Pink Lady’ | This is a selection from this grex that was deemed, in some way, superior to the other members of the progeny. This name is always in any language other than Latin, is capitalized, is not italicized, and is in single quotes. There are frequently several or more cultivars in a grex. Think of the cultivar as one of your parents’ children. You’re all labeled with a grex, but the cultivar is you in particular. |
| Award Designation | HCC/AOS | Highly Commended Certificate from the American Orchid Society. (See the nearby sidebar for more information on these designations.) |
WHY CARE THAT AN ORCHID WAS AWARDED?
Awarded orchids are the crème de la crème of the orchid world. They’ve been deemed this distinction by trained, discriminating orchid judges. The American Orchid Society, a nonprofit educational organization that is dedicated to the study of orchids, has established the judging criteria. Similar organizations serve the same function in other parts of the world.
At each accredited orchid show, a covey of judges carefully examines orchids that are exceptional. They use Internet connections to check all existing records of the orchids being judged. They look for ones of the same grex or similar parentage to see what has been awarded in the past to serve as a benchmark of excellence. These records will reveal which of their parents have been awarded, what size and number of flowers were on the awarded plants, and so on. They then use the criteria to decide if these specimens are indeed superior to others of this type and whether they’re worthy of awards. The three award categories used by the American Orchid Society that you’re most likely to encounter are (from highest to lowest):
First Class Certificate (FCC): This is the coveted highest award that only a handful of orchids (10 or 15!) receive every year.
Award of Merit (AM): Usually a few hundred orchids win this distinction every year.
Highly Commended Certificate (HCC): Another few hundred orchids are given this level of award.Of course, other countries also have their own award designations, and these award-winning plants are equally exceptional and worth searching out.
Very few orchids make it through this gauntlet. Because of modern cloning techniques (see Chapter 2), you can now obtain these prize winners for your own collection at very reasonable prices. Some types of orchids, like the slippers, are rarely cloned, so in that case, picking out those hybrids with awarded parents is a good idea. Remember: It takes the same amount of space to grow a high-quality orchid as it does a poor one, so why not grow the best?
Orchid hybridizing can produce plants with quite complex names, especially in some of the exceptionally large groups like the cattleyas (see Chapter 11) and the oncidiums (see Chapter 13). In these chapters, I deal with their names in more detail. Appendix A provides a pronunciation key of many of the orchids I discuss in this book.
You don’t have to be an expert in orchid names in order to enjoy and grow orchids. You’ll catch onto many other name nuances after you’re drawn further into the orchid web. For now, don’t worry about them much — they’re only names!
Recognizing What Makes an Orchid an Award Winner
Various orchid societies have developed their own systems of deciding when an orchid is a winner.
Much of it’s based on comparing the existing champion and of this particular type of orchid to the one being judged. Thank goodness for existing orchid databases complete with pictures and specifications. Does the one being judged have larger flowers or more flowers? Are its flowers better shaped, fuller, brighter, or better marked? There are just some of the primary criteria.
Of course, the truth is, all that really counts is you think your orchid is a winner. One thing that judging rarely takes into consideration is the vigor of the plant. Is it easy to grow and flower? Those qualities are particularly important to me and what good is it if your plant is an award winner if it isn’t a robust grower and is a reluctant bloomer.
FEELING THE ORCHID MANIA
Being crazy about orchids isn’t new. In fact, this orchid mania, also known as orchidelirium, seems to have reached its peak in Victorian times. It was similar in its extreme to Dutch Tulip Mania. During these times, some wealthy folks mostly in England spent vast amounts of money to send plant explorers to all parts of the world in search of new species of orchids that were then brought back to auction houses in London to be purchased for vast sums of money. These explorers risked life and limb to find new treasures. They faced tropical diseases, poor or nonexistent roads, steamy insect-infested jungles, and civil unrest in some of the countries they explored. The explorations were extremely competitive and cutthroat.
The explorers kept the locations where they found the orchids as a guarded secret, and they made very few efforts at leaving any plants behind to reestablish themselves in the wild. In fact, some accounts reported that the explorers burned the grounds where the orchids were originally collected so no one else could collect them. Unfortunately, not much information about growing and transporting orchids was known at that time so many if not most of the orchids died in transit or withered in greenhouses that didn’t replicate their native environments. Some species
