Tsubotaara Melinda Marie 'Blue Fairy'

Tsubotaara Melinda Marie 'Blue Fairy'

I came across this striking blue orchid at the 2018 New York Orchid Show.  The bloom was hidden behind a glass enclosure, labeled with a genus I had never seen before: Tsubotaara.  What kind of orchid could this be?  

According to the International Orchid Register, Tsubotaara Melinda Marie is a cross between Pabanisia Eva's Blue Amazon and Zygonisia Cynosure.  The hybrid was registered in 2010 by Kalapana Tropicals, a Hawaii-based orchid wholesaler.  A relatively miniature plant, this hybrid blooms with beautiful, oversized bluish flowers.

Tsubotaara Melinda Marie = Pabanisia Eva's Blue Amazon x Zygonisia Cynosure

Photo credits:

Pabanisia Eva's Blue Amazon: DementedPimento (Reddit) 

Zygonisia Cynosure: Maria's Orchids, 2016 New York Orchid show

The full genealogy of Tsubotaara Melinda Marie includes contribution from four different orchid genera.

Curiously, I could not find any photos of Zygopetalum graminifolium while researching this genealogy.  The image depicted below is gathered from a print from Jean Linden, a prominent orchid botanist from the 19th century. This is a species that does not appear to be frequently cultivated or photographed by orchid enthusiasts.  Nor was this ever a particularly popular species among orchid breeders: Zygopetalum Skippy Ku is the only hybrid registered with Z. graminifolium as a parent.

And here is a closeup of the contributing species.

Parent species of Tsubotaara Melinda Maria

Photo credits:

Pabstia jugosa: Orchi (Wikimedia commons)

Aganisia cyanea: Orchi (Wikimedia commons)

Zygopetalum graminifolium: Jean Linden orchid print

Zygopetalum intermedium: Manuel (Flickr)

Aganisia cyanea shares the greatest resemblance to Tsubotaara Melinda Marie, which makes sense because it was crossed twice into this hybrid.  However, I can see how features from both Zygopetalum and Pabstia genera are represented in the final hybrid. Tsubotaara Melinda Marie is a great example of how orchid breeding may be used to borrow traits from very different orchid genera to produce a truly distinct new flower.

Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein 'Lulu'

Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein 'Lulu'

Oncidopsis orchids are hybrids between Oncidium and Miltoniopsis.  This particular hybrid gracefully displays the balance between these two genera: its flowers have the full roundness typical of Miltoniopsis, yet they also display an intensity of color and pattern that reminds me of Oncidium crosses.

Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein is a 1992 hybrid between Oncidopsis Aglaon and Miltoniopsis Martin Orenstein. It's actually a slightly unusual crossing, because Oncidopsis Aglaon is a very old hybrid: it was registered in 1926.  Such old hybrids don't frequently maintain popularity long enough to still be available for hybridizing nearly a century after their creation.

Genealogy of Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein

You can see a full resolution version of this image here: http://imgur.com/EVlv8Om

As is typical with orchid hybrids, the breeding scheme for Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein is a bit of an overcomplicated mess. There are approximately 50 progenitors in the diagram, including 5 Oncidium species and 3 Miltoniopsis species.  

Miltoniopsis breeding clusters very strongly around Miltoniopsis Bleuana, a primary hybrid of M. vexillaria and M. roezlii. Interestingly, this orchid goes by two different names.  M. Bleuana was the first and oldest Miltoniopsis hybrid; it was registered in 1889 and named after its maker, Alfred Bleu.  However, in 1921, the exact same cross was again registered under a different name: M. Reine Elisabeth. 

The reason for all this Miltoniopsis interbreeding is that in the 1800s, orchids of this genus were in very high demand, but botanists' ability to hybridize them was quite limited. There were only 2 possible primary hybrids for botanists to work with: Miltoniopsis Bleuana [roezlii x vexillaria] and Miltoniopsis Venus [phalaenopsis x vexillaria].  It took another half century to discover many of the Miltoniopsis species we know today, and then more time for breeders to generate new primary Miltoniopsis hybrids in the 1990's.  Until then, overzealous Miltoniopsis breeders kept generating endless variants of the same few basic crosses.

Species progenitors of Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein

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 harryanum by Diego Rodriguez (Flickr gallery)

Miltoniopsis roezlii, by Strohero (wikimedia commons)
Miltoniopsis phalaenopsis, Wikimedia commons image

Here are the Orchid species that went into creating Oncidopsis Memoria Martin Orenstein.  These are all a familiar list of suspects that have contributed in various combinations to most other Oncidium and Miltoniopsis hybrids I've profiled: Oncidium alexandre, Oncidium nobile, Oncidium luteopurpureum, Oncidium harryanum, Miltoniopsis vexillaria, Miltoniopsis roezlii, and Miltoniopsis phalaenopsis.

The lip coloration of Miltoniopsis phalaenopsis shows up in the final hybrid.  Likewise the purple of Miltoniopsis vexillaria comes through, as does the slightly more ruffled flower shape of Oncidium alexandre and Oncidium nobile. It remains a mystery to me what any of the other oncidium species might have contributed to this cross, or whether their traits have been effectively bred out of the orchid during the hybridization process.

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)