Oncidopsis Yellow Parade 'Alpine'

Oncidopsis Yellow Parade 'Alpine'

This cheery yellow orchid is an old but still popular hybrid.  The intergenic cross between Oncidium and Miltoniopsis results in compact plants that bloom with spikes of two to five 2.5-inch flowers.  Oncidopsis Yellow Parade is a 1988 hybrid between Oncidopsis Yellow Bird and Oncidium Parade. It seems that the parents of this hybrid are no longer commonly cultivated, as I could not find images of their flowers. 

I was, however, just barely able to complete the genealogy of this orchid.  This orchid has 68 progenitors, resulting in a sprawling genealogy tree. However, in the mess that is typical of early 20th century orchid breeding, there are actually only 8 orchid species that have contributed to this cross.  On the Miltoniopsis side of the family tree, only 2 Miltoniopsis species (M. vexillaria and M. roezli) have generated 16 progenitors. 

All in all, it resulted in an intricate family tree that I encourage you guys to check it out. (the chart is much too large for the image embedded below to be legible, but it gives a scale to the breeding scheme.)

The very complicated genealogy of Oncidopsis Yellow Parade

One interesting observation revealed by Oncidium Yellow Parade's genealogy is how it is closely related to several of the other Oncidium hybrids I've profiled recently.

For example, Oncidium Brimstone Butterfly and Oncidium Golden Guinea are common progenitors for both Oncidopsis Yellow Parade and Oncostele Wildcat (which is itself a progenitor to several orchids I've written about.  The progenitors of Brimstone Butterfly and Golden Guinea account for 34 out of the total 68 orchids that went into the breeding of Oncidopsis Yellow Parade.  Essentially, Oncidopsis Yellow Parade shares about 50% of its genetics with Wildcat, Catatante and Sunkissed.

Oncidopsis Yellow Parade also contains ALL 16 of the progenitors that went into breeding Oncidium Midas.

These oncidium intergenics are closely related

Maria's Orchids: Oncidium Midas

Maria's Orchids: Oncostele Wildcat

There is definitely a similarity in the flower shape and general looks of Oncidopsis Yellow Parade and Oncostele Wildcat. The resemblence to Oncidium Midas is less pronounced by not completely absent.

Additionally, I have located my new record for oldest oncidium hybrid: Oncidium Wilckeanum.  This hybrid was registered in 1880!  O. Wilckeanum is a naturally occuring cross between Oncidium alexandre and Oncidium luteopurpureum.  During the late 1800's orchid enthusiasts would attempt to replicate natural hybrids by crossing the species they suspected to be parents of a given hybrid orchid.  Oncidium Wilckeanum was one of the very first hybrids to have its parentage registered and recognized (though not without continuing controversy and debate).  No one seems to grow this cross anymore, however, as I could not find any images of what this hybrid may have looked like.

Finally these are all of the 8 species that were bred together to create Oncidopsis Yellow Parade: 6 species of Oncidium and 2 Miltoniopsis.

Progenitor species for Oncidopsis Yellow Parade

Photo credits: 

Oncidium alexandre  and Oncidium spectatissimum by Orchi

Oncidium nobile and Miltoniopsis vexillaria by Quimbaya (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium luteopurpureum by Dick Culbert (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium hallii by Andreas Kay (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium harryanum by Diego Rodriguez (Flickr gallery)
Miltoniopsis roezlii, by Strohero (wikimedia commons)

Oncostele Romance 'Oro Rojo'

Oncostel Romance 'Oro Rojo'

Oncostele Wildcat was parent to Oncostele Catatante, and Oncostele Catatante is the parent to this brightly colored orchid. Oncostele Romance is a 2010 cross between Oncostele Catatante and Oncidium Petite Shine.

There's a couple different cultivars of this hybrid out in the internet.  The 'Oro Rojo' I photographed has scarlet petals and a golden lip.  Meanwhile, Oncostele Romance 'Peachy' has the same orange tones as its parent Oncostele Catatante.

Oncostele Romance 'Oro Rojo'

I could not complete a genealogy for the orchid.  This hybrid's parentage has something like 200 parent plants, and the software I use to draw my genealogy trees cannot handle files of this size.  The complexity of the orchid's lineage comes from the utter mess of orchid breeding that went on in the first half of the 20th century. During this time, a relatively small number of primary hybrids were being bred among each other in every combination possible to produce a plethora of very closely related orchid crosses.  But if you follow the genealogy trees, all of these hybrids reach back to the same handful of parent species.

The result is: Oncidium Petite Shine has over a hundred progenitors.  However, it only adds 1 new oncidium species to the parentage of Oncostele Romance, that were not already represented in its other parent, Oncostele Catatante: Oncidium noezlianum.

Oncostele Romance progenitors

Photo credits:

Rhynchostele uroskinneri by FireOpal (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium fuscatum by Eduardo A. Pacheco (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium leucochilum by Arne and Bent Larsen Orchid collection

Oncidium alexandre  and Oncidium spectatissimum by Orchi

Oncidium nobile by Quimbaya (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium luteopurpureum by Dick Culbert (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium hallii by Andreas Kay (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium harryanum by Diego Rodriguez (Flickr gallery)
Oncidium sphacelatum, by AntanO (Wikimedia commons)
Oncidium Cariniferum photo (C) Eric Hunt (see his orchid photo website, also, Flickr gallery)
Oncidium nezlianum, by orchid-a-day.tumblr.com/

These are the 12 species that went into making Oncostele Romance:

Oncidium noezlianum, Oncidium nobile, Oncidium alexandre, Oncidium spectatissimum, Oncidium luteopurpureum, Oncidium halii, Oncidium harryanum, Oncidium leucochilum, Oncidium fuscatum, Oncidium cariniferum, Oncidium sphacelatum, Rhynchostele uroskinneri

Oncostele Catatante

Oncostele Catatante 'Pacific Sunspots'

This fiery oncidium intergenic is named Oncostele Catatante 'Pacific Sunspots.'  The hybrid is an old favorite at the New York Orchid Show--I photographed two different clones of this cross, Catatante 'Kilauea Karma' and Catatante 'Alice' in 2013. The flowers from this orchid are bountiful and bright, demanding attention.

Oncostele Catatante 'Kilauea Karma' (Photographed in 2013)

Oncostele Catatante 'Alice' (Photographed in 2013

Oncostele Catatante is a 2002 cross between Oncostele Wildcat and Oncidium Sphacetante. Both of the parent orchids were familiar to me. I wrote a post on the complicated lineage of Oncostele Wildcat earlier this year.  Meanwhile, Oncidium Sphacetante is an older hybrid that made up a significant contribution in the lineage of Oncidium Volcano Midnight.  I would say that all of these oncidium hybrids share many similarities.

Parentage of Oncostele Catatante (Oncidium Sphacetante X Oncostele Wildcat)

Photo credit: 

Oncidium Sphacetante, by Camp Lot A Noise Tropicals (orchid vendor)

Oncostele Wildcat, Maria's Orchids: The Many Faces of Oncostele Wildcat

As I wrote in the post about it, Oncostele Wildcat comes in many different colors, depending on the clone.  This makes it hard to guess which one was used in making Oncostele Catatante.  Further, the differences between Catatante 'Alice' and the other two Catatante clones suggest that different Wildcat strains were used in the makings of each.

Here is the full lineage of Oncostele Catatante:

Lineage of Oncostele Catatante

I re-drew my lineage of Oncostele Wildcat to try and get the relationships between the parent plants to be more legible.  However, there is probably no amount of rearranging that can fully untangle this mess.  It seems that when people first figured out how to cross Oncidium orchids in the end of the 19th century, hobbyists were just breeding the crosses every which way, resulting in these incestuous loops.  A great deal of hybrids from the 1940s and earlier actually descend from a relatively small pool of parent species.

The lineage contains a total of 10 Oncidium species, and 1 Rhynchostele species. Here they are in full:

Species progenitors of Oncostele Catatante

Photo credits:

Rhynchostele uroskinneri by FireOpal (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium fuscatum by Eduardo A. Pacheco (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium leucochilum by Arne and Bent Larsen Orchid collection

Oncidium alexandre  and Oncidium spectatissimum by Orchi

Oncidium nobile by Quimbaya (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium luteopurpureum by Dick Culbert (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium hallii by Andreas Kay (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium harryanum by Diego Rodriguez (Flickr gallery)
Oncidium sphacelatum, by AntanO (Wikimedia commons)
Oncidium Cariniferum photo (C) Eric Hunt (see his orchid photo website, also, Flickr gallery)

The many faces of Oncostele Wildcat

Oncostele Wildcat

This is Oncostele Wildcat. It is an orchid hybrid with a wide variety of color patterns.  The five flowers in the image above are ones that I've personally photographed during different years of the New York Orchid Show.  However, searching online for 'Oncostele Wildcat' reveals an even broader range of flower shapes and colors.


This hybrid, which was registered in 1992, is widely popular, and has a great diversity of flowers.  I had a lot of fun researching its background.  Digging into the ancestry of Oncostele Wildcat is like going into the very history of orchid breeding itself.

Check out this crazy lineage tree.

Geneology of Oncostele Wildcat

[Side note: I'm having a difficult time getting these lineage trees to look sharp in preview mode, especially on mobile.  Blogger does not have an option for uploading SVG files.  Anyone have a suggestion how to best upload detailed diagrams without losing resolution?]

Things start out fairly normal; Oncostele Wildcat is a cross between Oncostele Rustic Bridge and Oncidium Crowborough.  However, after that things get complicated and the genealogy tree turns into a complicated web of crosses and back-crosses. In the parentage of Oncidium Crowborough are 6 generations of orchid hybrids, dating as far back as 1898!

For reference, the mid-1800's were the peak of Victorian era orchid mania, when explorers traveled around the world to collect wild orchids.  The first known orchid hybrid was made in 1853 (Calanthe Dominii [Calanthe masuca x Calanthe furcata]. Only 40 years later, the hybrids at the top of Wildcat's genealogy tree may be some of the first oncidium crosses ever made.

Without a history book on orchid cultivation at my disposal, I could not definitively figure out what was the first registered oncidium hybrid. However, this patent references a cross by Vuylsteke made in 1898 as the first time an oncidium was hybridized in cultivation.  The patent doesn't specify the cross, which could be referring to either Oncidium Ardentissimum or Oncidium Rolfeae. However, both of these very early hybrids are in the family tree of Oncostele Wildcat. 

Oncostele Wildcat is made from 9 orchid species: 1 Rhynchostele, and 8 Oncidiums.

Rhynchostele uroskinneri, Oncidium fuscatum, Oncidium leucochilum, Oncidium alexandre, Oncidium spectatissimum, Oncidium nobile, Oncidium luteopurpureum, Oncidium hallii, Oncidium harryanum

Progenitors of Oncostele wildcat

Photo credits: 

Rhynchostele uroskinneri by FireOpal (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium fuscatum by Eduardo A. Pacheco (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium leucochilum by Arne and Bent Larsen Orchid collection

Oncidium alexandre  and Oncidium spectatissimum by Orchi

Oncidium nobile by Quimbaya (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium luteopurpureum by Dick Culbert (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium hallii by Andreas Kay (Flickr gallery)

Oncidium harryanum by Diego Rodriguez (Flickr gallery)

Note: Oncidium alexandre is also commonly referred to as Oncidium crispum.

The genealogy tree for Oncostele Wildcat shows that Oncidium alexandre was crossed into this hybrid 6 different times.  It looks like the overall flower shape of Oncostele Wildcat and Oncidium alexandre are highly similar.  Another overachiever, Oncidium spectatissimum, was bred into the cross 3 times; it has many similar dark and bright orange markings as Oncostele Wildcat. However, with a hybrid this complicated, it may be futile to try and parse out how each individual species contributed to the end result.

And finally, these are the larger versions of the photographs that comprised my title image.

Oncostele Wildcat

Oncostele Wildcat 'Carmela'

Oncostele Wildcat 'Cheetah'

Oncostele Wildcat 'Everlasting'

Oncostele Wildcat 'Silver Cool Room'