A Case of Mistaken Identity
by Joshua White
Like any Orchid genus, Cymbidiums suffer their share of mislabelling. Sometimes this is just a slight misspelling, or a mix-up between the grex and varietal names. Occasionally the label doesn’t match anything in the RHS register at all.
However, there are a couple of species and primary hybrids that are often confused. Once you know what to look for, they are easy to distinguish between. This short article looks at some of the most commonly mislabelled primary hybrids in Victoria. It is my hope that the reader will then be able to correctly identify these hybrids and the related species in their own collection.
Cym. Lowio-Grandiflorum
This primary hybrid is the cross of Cym. lowianum and Cym. hookerianum (also known as Cym. grandiflorum) and unfortunately it is often mislabelled as Cym. lowianum.
Cym. lowianum
Cym. hookerianum
Above are examples of the two parent species. As you can see, Cym. lowianum tends to have a wide, rectangular shape with thin tepals. Its standout feature is the blood-red “v” on the lip. Cym. hookerianum, on the other hand, has a more regular shape with a finely-spotted lip, which includes a green-yellow picotee and a ruffled edge. The hybrid of the two differs from both parents in a few recognisable ways:
The shade of green is typically apple green, much like hookerianum. The bronze or russet overlay that sometimes appears in lowianum is gone, courtesy of hookerianum’s tendency to reduce or block the anthocyanin layer that exhibits the spots and stripes. Cym. lowianum, on the other hand, picks up spots and stripes quite well. This effect can be most obviously seen in the two hybrids with Cym. tracyanum — Gattonense (lowianum x tracyanum) is heavily spotted/striped, whereas Rosefieldense (hookerianum x tracyanum) only has a small amount of fine spotting.
The lip usually exhibits a ruffled edge, although it is not as pronounced as that of Cym. hookerianum. Cym. lowianum has a very clean, flat edge to its lip.
Cym. lowianum has clean sidelobes with a pale green picotee, a trait which is visible in Lowio-grandiflorum rather than the fine spots of hookerianum.
The “v” on the lip is partially spotted. The lowianum lip tends to dominate, but there are always some spots due to hookerianum’s influence.
Cym. Lowio-grandiflorum
Cym. Lowio-grandiflorum
Two different examples of Cym. Lowio-grandiflorum are shown above. They show the variation possible in the hybrid; in the case of the left photo, the wider tepals of hookerianum have been inherited, whilst the right photo exhibits a strong lowianum shape. Note that both are the cleaner green of hookerianum, feature spotting around the “v” marking and have a ruffled edge to the lip.
Cym. Doris
There is a joke that any unknown hybrid must be Cym. Doris, so pervasive the hybrid was! Doris is the cross of insigne and tracyanum. Unfortunately, it frequently gets mixed up with Cym. tracyanum. The most obvious way to identify the difference is the colour – tracyanum cannot be pink. Other visible differences include a reduction in the hairs on the labellum and callus ridges, as well as the shape of the lip. Doris also tends to flower slightly later than tracyanum due to the influence of insigne.
Cym. tracyanum
Cym. Doris
Cym. Bennett-Poei and Toni Benton
These last two hybrids are both hybrids of Cym. iridioides and unfortunately are often confused with this parent. Cym. Bennett-Poei (tracyanum X iridioides) is more commonly seen and has even been mislabelled as iridioides in OrchidWiz.
Toni Benton (erythraeum X iridioides) is less often seen. It has been made with both forms of erythraeum, although to my knowledge, only the version made with erythraeum var. erythraeum has been confused with iridioides.
Cym. iridioides features a yellow labellum overlaid with medium to large red spots (notably larger and richer than those of tracyanum). The lip is narrower than that of tracyanum and is typically tapered like lowianum. The tepals do not curve downwards and feature red-brown stripes as opposed to spots.
Bennett-Poei consistently has a near-white labellum (with only a pale yellow/cream cast) and often the broader, rounded shape of tracyanum. The downwards curve of the tepals may or may not be inherited, whilst the spotting of Bennett-Poei is greater than that of iridioides.
Toni Benton (made with erythraeum var. erythraeum) will tend to look like a smaller iridioides except that its lip is also typically a dirty white and features far less spotting than iridioides.
Cym. iridioides (note: the identity of this plant has been questioned)
Cym. Toni Benton (made with Cym. erythraeum var. erythareum)
Cym. Bennett-Poei (photo courtesy of Andy Easton)
Cym. Royale Green Mist (Cym. erythraeum var. flavum ‘Paradise’ X Cym. erythraeum var. erythraeum ‘Lois’)
This article first appeared in Cymbidium Chatter Issue 3A (April 2020) and was last revised 12th June 2023.