Pleione species: "field-clones" or seed-raised?

[JPB]

Hi all,

While my collection of these beautiful plants is steadily growing, I'd like to raise a question on the genetic origin of individual plants.

Which species (including the natural occurring hybrids, f.i. P x lagenaria), now available from nurseries are, vegetatively propagated from original material (clones)? Or are they all raised from seed these days?

My question was triggerd by the remark Cribb & Butterfield (1999, p. 10): "....Although most of the species are available in trade from nursery-grown, often seed-raised stock......".

Strange, as I had understood that the true species from nurseries always were field-clones, some of them in culture for many decades...

Any thoughts/facts?

Thanks,
HAns

[JPB]

Anyone???

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Hans
Some species are raised from seed these days. I know, for example, that Ian Butterfield has raised his stocks of P. grandiflora and P. aurita from seed and probably some other species too. P. forrestii is now widely available from seed raised stocks. Of course, many of the species for sale in the trade are still of wild origin, illegally collected and exported mainly from China. If you wanted to know whether a particular stock was of wild origin or was grown from seed you would need to ask the nursery selling it. They can sometimes be rather edgy about answering such questions because of the whole legal/illegal situation of the trade. And one has to say, the answer if you do get one may not necessarily be the truth.

For the naturally occurring hybrids, they by definition are of wild origin and any stocks in cultivation are vegetative propagations of these. However, the situation is a little confused because of lack of understanding generally about naming conventions. When two species (that are known to cross in the wild to make a natural hybrid) are artificially crossed to get seed, the offspring cannot be given the same name as the wild hybrid (to avoid confusion). For example, P. x lagenaria is the natural hybrid of P. maculata and P. praecox. This cross has also been done artificially by, for example, the late Jan Berg in Holland. The naming conventions do not allow the offspring of his cross to be called P. x lagenaria as this is reserved for the wild material only. He in fact registered this cross with the name P. Confirmation. All man-made versions of this cross should therefore carry the name P. Confirmation. However, I know that he supplied his material to orchid nurseries that are selling them as P. x lagenaria ( I guess because this would attract a higher price?). So the situation can be confused.

Cheers

Paul Cumbleton
(Author of The Pleione Website at www.pleione.info)