Mike, It is my opinion that Brassavola tuberculata, B. flagellaris, B. perrinii and B. fragrans, would be better treated as a species complex than trying to separate them. Of course, when you get only two plants and compare them you can see diferences, but when you get 50, all seem different and all seem the same, there are ones with leaves growing (more or less) up and pendent ones, with thicker leaves and thiner ones, with many flowers per inflorescence and less flowers, some are greenish, some yellowish and some whitish. Some have very tiny purple dots. Some flowers are larger some smaller, some rounder, some narrower, some straighter, some curlyer. The lips are variously lobed or not lobed at all. You can find any set of floral caracteristics listed above with any sort of vegetation. Furthermore when you bring them into cultivation new growths show diferent morphology. The thing is they probably are on early specialization. All mentioned species grow around the same areas, some closer to the sea, other in dryer areas. Most of them bloom from late Spring to early Fall.
I have more than a dozen different plants, from a couple of states. Populations growing within 100 km from each other already vary. I Cannot name only one of them for sure. You can describe different species to the extreme forms, but what to do with all intermediate ones? Also you can tentatively name the species based on description location, but this info usually is lost when you buy from a nursery. Basically we have this problematic complex, and another one of B. cebolleta, also described a number of times under different names, which generaly has few thicker flowers per inflorescnce, much smaller, leaves also smaller, not pendent, from Bahia to Amazon area. Further than those there is also B. martiana, which is easy to recognize. No one seems intrigued or brave enough to deal with these complexes. Case we must go with those large purple dots shown on B. tuberculata of Curtis Magazine original description ... well, I have not seen it around during the last 25 years. Dalton ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dr. Braem" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 9:07 AM Subject: [OGD] Brassavola > Dear Mike, > > > > >From: "Mike O'Connor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > >Hi All, > >I have two plants of Brassavola species both of which are not labelled. The > >one plant I was given by delegates from Brazil to the 10th World Orchid > >Conference in Durban in 1981 and I erroneously labelled this as Brassavola > >nodosa (which as far as I now know does not occur in Brazil). The other plant > >also came from a nursery in Brazil. > >Both plants look similar but flower about 2-3 months appart and there are > >differences in size. > >Can anyone advise me how I would tell the difference between Brassavola > >tuberculata and Brassavola flagellaris? I have checked in all the books in my > >personal library but cannot find anything that distinguishes these two species > >and I certainly cannot find good line drawings that would help me (I find > >Pabst and Dungs completely unhelpful!!) > >Many thanks for any help that anyone may be able to provide > > > > > > Again, the first thing to do, is to check for the original publications. > Brassavola flagellaris was described by Barbosa Rodrigues in his "Genera > and Species of Orchidearum novarum" . page 161 (you find this > information, for example in "The Manual of Cultivated Orchids" ... > Brassavola tuberculata was describe by Hooker in "Curtis's Botanical > Magazine", tab. 2878. > That information is also readily available from "The Manual of > Cultivated Orchids", however, that book shows the same plant under both > names. !! > In Curtis's Botanical Magazine, there are two plates published as > "Brassavola tuberculata Hooker" (plates 2878, and 3761). The pates > obviously show different plants. Of course e you have to go with the > original which us plate 2878 and check first if the text corresponds to > the drawing (chuckle, chuckle). etc etc ... > > Both species have been reported from Brazil > > chuckle, chuckle ... back to the roots .... > regards > Guido > > Dr. Guido J. Braem > _______________________________________________ > the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids > > Esta mensagem foi verificada pelo E-mail Protegido Terra. > Scan engine: VirusScan / Atualizado em 21/07/2004 / Versco: 1.5.2 > Proteja o seu e-mail Terra: http://www.emailprotegido.terra.com.br/ _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids
