Charles, et. al.:
I have several peloric Phals in my collection; they appear to be "unstable", sometimes producing anther caps and pollinia, sometimes not. The degree of peloria also varies by clone and by flowering; some clones are more reliable than others. Not sure I can answer your question, but would like to share a couple observations.
I have a peloric mutation of Be Tris 'Ching Hua #3' that produces no anther cap, pollinia or stigma most of the time, it has three lips that are nearly identical. With the exception of the anther cap/pollinia, it flowers reliably peloric. On this plant, in the three years that I have owned it, it has never produced a non-peloric flower. The other clones of Be Tris 'Ching Hua #3' that I have, have never produced a peloric flower. This clone is a pretty stable peloric.
I have several plants of Little Mary 'Cherry Blossom', and this one is variable. Sometimes, one side of an infls. will produce non-peloric flowers, sometimes flowers will have a peloric side (when viewed from the front) and a non-peloric side. 'Cherry Blossom' has vestigal calli at the petal bases, but does not produce three lips. This clone is not very stable, and produces different types of peloric flowers.
I have seen straight "normal" equestris rosea and Kuntrarti Rarasahati 'Copperstate' produce occasional peloric flowers with three lips. I do not remember if these had fully formed columns (with anther, pollinia and stigma) or not.
Peloria in Doritis is much more stable, and apparently more dominant. I have several clones of Doritis from Norman's strain of Doritis alba that includes buysonniana, pulcherrima and the Champornensis form. I also have several Purple Gems made with peloric Doritis and both peloric and on-peloric equestris. All of the peloric and on-peloric clones from these matings are very reliable, and flower the same every time, either peloric or non-peloric. Eric Christenson does not want to recognize the Champornensis form of Doritis (Phalaenopsis pulcherrima [Christenson]), but it appears stable, and the triat is apparently heritable, so it does have horticultural value.
Maybe peloria is not so odd, when you consider that Orchids theoretically evolved from an ancestor that had three sepals and three petals ...
rob't Robert Bedard http://www.robert-bedard.com/orchids/ Original message: Message: 8 Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 18:47:08 -0400 From: Charles Ufford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [OGD] peloric phal that changes flower types To: <Orchids@orchidguide.com> Cc: phals list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Hello all, I was taking some pictures of a few of my flowering plants tonight, and I realized that one of my peloric phal equestris' that normally has sort of funky peloric flowers that do have a functioning stigma, pollen and column, now has about 75% flowers with normal column/pollinia, and 25% flowers that were completely peloric. These new flowers truly had three lips with complete pink coloration on the lip, and the column was a sort of three-sided deal with no pollen or stigmatic surface. Normally the flowers have two extra 'lips' that have a sort of muddled lip surface (some faint pink but with white lines crossing the petal structure) and very small side-nodes to the lip that have faint yellow and brown colors/spotting, and the new flowers have full color, shape and all of the standard lip. My other peloric equestris has always had one lip with 2 halfhearted attempts at others (with no color or shape break), and has the column/stigmatic surface and pollen. Coloration is faint on the peloric lips but not 'indecisive' as to which form or color to express like the first one. Has anyone else ever seen a peloric phal that changes it's peloric expression? I've heard others mention that they have seen pelorism expressed on all flowers, and had no true column or pollen, or that they all did have a true column and pollen, but not a mix. thoughts, ideas? charles _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
