Cattleya (Hoffmannseggella) mirandae

It is relatively recently described species (2005). Some more info in IOSPE site. I got it from Florália in May 2013. I'm not familiar with the taxonomy of this group, so I appreciate any info if this is a correct species or not. I have a few species from this group, and the flowers look pretty similar although the growth habit etc. differs quite a bit. If anyone has a good source of information about this group of plants, I'd love to know.

It is a moderate size for a rupicolous cattleya (laelia): currently the pseudobulb length is 2.5", leaf length is 6.5", and the inflorescence length is 13". It is the thinner leaved rupicolous cattleya, and it seems to grow roots vigorously. It has only 5 flowers, but this is probably because it hasn't completely recovered from importation.

I'm growing it in a plastic pot, 10mm layer of small lava rock at the bottom, then 5mm of sphagnum moss layer, and small lava rock:sphag=1:1 as the main growing medium. I don't keep it too dry as suggested for rupicolous laelias. It's under florescent light (6500k, 800-1000fc, 13h/day) with no natural light, and it seems to grow/flower with relatively small amount of light. RH around 60-90%. 84/68F in the summer, 72/68F in the winter.

I self-fertilized it (you can see the fruit in the 3rd photo), and I'll send seeds to Troy Meyers.

The 1st photo was underexposed a little bit, and I can't quite correct the color. The color is pretty close, but the real flowers have a bit more tangerine than the photo. The 2nd photos of the inflorescence is very close to the real color.


Cattleya (Hoffmannseggella) mirandae on Flickr


Cattleya (Hoffmannseggella) mirandae on Flickr


Cattleya (Hoffmannseggella) mirandae plant on Flickr

 

Thanks, Kelly. The leaves are really purple both upside and downside. But the flowering and the newer pseudobulbs (the left 2) are the ones produced under my condition. The top sides of leaves are now deep green with some purple, but not as extreme purple as the right most leaf. So I wonder if the purpleness of the right most leaf is from Florália culture with probably much more light (or it could be due to some stress associated with importation). Interestingly, a root came out from the node between the pseudobulb and the inflorescence (flower shoot).

 

Thanks, and thanks for the suggestion of Miranda Web site. Yeah, Miranda Orchids used to have great info, but all of the info is unfortunately gone with the update...

 

Thank you all,

Yeah, I guess that it is partly showing the limitation of the binomial naming system. It appears that the Cattleya group has gone through rapid morphological divergence in a short term. Here is an interesting/related read about the previous revision: http://www.delfinadearaujo.com/on/on20/pages/cassio01en.htm

 

Update after 2 years about this Cattleya (Laelia, Hoffmannseggella) mirandae. A bit more info in the Link to my blog post about this species.


Cattleya mirandae (inflorescence) on Flickr

Dorsal sepal length=2.8cm, Dorsal sepal width=0.6cm, Ovary length=4.0cm

Cattleya mirandae on Flickr

It is kind of getting too big: Largest Pseudobulb length=19cm, Largest leaf length=19.7cm, inflorescence length=83.8cm.

Cattleya mirandae (plant) on Flickr