Habenaria Hybrids - PINK

Instead of uploading an irritating amount of separate threads of every pink Habenaria hybrid I had, I assumed that clumping any of them that I was able to picture into a single thread would be better. This is my excuse for creating another long thread...

First, I figured I introduce the two characters in the Habenaria species that create all the different pink hybrids (I have chosen to emit Hab. janellehayneiana due to the small amount of hybrids that it has been featured in). The first member is Habenaria erichmichelii:



Habenaria erichmichelii is an interesting species for several reasons. First, it is extremely fragrant and can fill a grow room with a divine, sweet, floral fragrance in the early afternoon if enough flowers are open. Second, I feel like almost every single floral trait of this plant is completely recessive... By that, I mean the pink color nor the fragrance rarely ever carry over in its hybrids. It does have a tendency to create some amount of mottling in the foliage, but the rest of the most obvious traits have very little effect.

The next (and more significant member) is Habenaria carnea:



This plant also has an odd influence on its hybrids: despite its very pale, pink color, it tends to create very vibrant, saturated pink-flowered hybrids and that trait is dominant in most cases. It also has mottled foliage that tend to carry through in its hybrids.

I figured I would start with "the classic:" Habenaria Regnieri:




This is a hybrid between Habenaria (rhodocheila x carnea). It displays the interesting influence of Habenaria carnea and how its pale pink is so-drastically intensified in many of its hybrids. This hybrid is also special in my opinion because it was one of the first Habenaria hybrids to be created, dating back to 1910 when Régnier bloomed the cross.

A similar hybrid to this is Habenaria Raingreen's Pink Paw:





This is an interesting hybrid because of its parentage: Hab. (Tracey (rhodocheila x erichmichelii) x carnea). I think it's curious because it is so similar to Hab. Regnieri, but with another pink-flowered Habenaria (erichmichelii) included. Overall, the color is fairly similar, if not slightly less-intense than most Hab. Regnieri. It also tends to have a greater variation in shape, which I've pictured two of my most "pleasing" shapes here. I like the single flower on top because it really beautifully displays the "broad shoulders" (ie. the broadened side lobe of the lip) that Hab. carnea has.

The next hybrid is Habenaria Raingreen's Ice Bird:




This flower is fairly typical of Hab. medusa's brilliant ability to completely bleach a colored cross, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This hybrid is Habenaria (medusa x Tracey). I was actually shocked that the color that carried through this cross was pink, as Hab. Tracey is really not all that pink of a flower. Even more interestingly, one of my plants was a saturated, pink color which was a shock to me, giving both the absence of Hab. carnea and the presence of Hab. medusa. I was not able to get a picture of that exact flower, but I plan on getting on next year.

Next up is the well-known Habenaria Pegasus:



This is becoming another "classic" Habenaria with its popularity - Hab. (carnea x medusa). This is one of the few hybrids of Habenaria carnea where the pale-pink of Hab. carnea remains pale... Despite that, it's a really great hybrid that I believe will only increase in popularity as more and more people discover it.

Finally, I've decided to include this NoID Habenaria:




This hybrid was actually discussed on this forum some time last year, and I still don't quite know what it is, but I believe it likely is a complex hybrid of a Habenaria rhodocheila hybrid crossed with Hab. medusa. When the members of the rhodocheila complex are crossed with medusa, they create a single, pointed midlobe of the lip, except for Hab. rhodocheila or complex rhodocheila crosses. For example, Hab. Bird of Paradise (Conure x medusa) the midlobe of the lip become split and resembles the "tail" shape that is seen in all members of the rhodocheila complex's lips. This trait seems to prevail only in Hab. medusa crosses that contain Hab. rhodocheila and/or complex rhodocheila complexes (ie. look at Hab. Raingreens Ice Bird - Tracey (rhodocheila x erichmichelii) x medusa, yet it has a singular, pointed midlobe of the lip, hinting that the complex rhodocheila cross must have strong enough influence (not just a primary rhodocheila cross) in order to achieve the "tail" effect). Along with this, this hybrid displays very short stigmatic processes, which is a trait of Hab. erichmichelii.
If I were to guess, this is a complex rhodocheila cross containing Hab. rhodocheila and Hab. erichmichelii which was then backcrossed with Hab. rhodocheila, or another member of the Hab. rhodocheila complex, all of which was crossed with Hab. medusa. Either that, or a previous rhodocheila complex x medusa cross (ie. Hab. Pegasus, Sunrise Plumes, etc.) crossed back to Hab. erichmichelii. Of course, these are all guesses, but it's a start.