Cym. floribundum var. album / pumilum var. album

[Australis]

With the recent discussions, I thought I'd post a few photos of my Cym. floribundum var. album plant (obtained earlier this year from Royale Orchids). It is currently in bloom (the first flowers started opening around the 21st of October), although the recent couple of days of 30 deg C have taken a bit of a toll on the flowers. These photos are from a couple of weeks ago when it was looking its best. There are two spikes in the photos - they emerged very close to each other. A third was on the opposite side of the plant (not visible in the photos), but I removed it to harvest the pollen before the heat hit.


Cym. floribundum var. album by Joshua W, on Flickr


Cym. floribundum var. album by Joshua W, on Flickr


Cym. floribundum var. album by Joshua W, on Flickr

[MrCym]

That came originally from me I believe and we used it for the remake of Minuet + Colchicine etc. I wished it had never taxonomically been designated album because that creates confusion. Cym. pumilum 'Green' would have made things much clearer!

[Australis]

I agree, Andy. The name of this colour form, along with insigne var. album, are probably the two most likely to cause confusion!

[Rodrigo]

Beautiful!
I love that white lip!

[tc66]

I’m very confused by this alba terminology in Cymbidiums.

When I was into breeding budgerigars, we only knew of the alba gene producing a clear white bird called an albino (in the case of blue series) and clear yellow called lutino (in the case of green series). Around the cheeks where they have small flecks of colour, they would show white in both blue and green series. The reason that the lutino would show white on the cheeks is because a green budgie has blue cheeks. Hence the removal of melanin from the blue leaves just white.

I would expect the same in Cymbidiums if the biology works the same way. Either a clear white or clear yellow. Anything in the lip with melanin should show with no melanin. The orchid shown here is green. I would expect the Alba version of this to be a creamy yellow, not green. I’m ok with the lip though belonging to an Alba.

Have I misunderstood what an Alba is in the world of Cymbidiums?

[Australis]

Beautiful!
I love that white lip!

Thanks! If you look closely at the first photo, though, you'll see the lip has faint spotting on it.

I’m very confused by this alba terminology in Cymbidiums.

I would expect ... either a clear white or clear yellow. Anything in the lip with melanin should show with no melanin. The orchid shown here is green. I would expect the Alba version of this to be a creamy yellow, not green. I’m ok with the lip though belonging to an Alba.

Have I misunderstood what an Alba is in the world of Cymbidiums?

Cym. floribundum var. album is not a genetic alba. It's just the green colour form of the species (there is no known genetic alba for the species). My understanding is that a genetic alba in the Orchid world is a plant incapable of producing the anthocyanins involved in pink, red, orange and brown. So a true alba can be white, yellow or green.

[tc66]

Very good Australis. Thanks for the clarification. So green is an accepted colour also? That's interesting.

[MrCym]

Tony, there are lots of genetic alba green Cyms and also in other orchid genera. When I found an alba Cym insigne, I had to call it alba because the album designation had been used incorrectly decades previously. I found the plant in S. Africa and it had a Sander's label with it so I was surprised more had not been known about this very rare plant.

[tc66]

Thanks Andy, very interesting anecdote.

Can one assume that if a plant is devoid of any pink, brown, orange or red marking then it's an alba?

[MrCym]

Yes you can! There's some tricky near albas, such as some forms of the grex Catch the Wind. They come out alba yellow visually but as they age, the flowers turn orange. That's the tell, orange has to have some anthocyanin component so although I love oranges, it rules them out of my alba lines.