Cattleya

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Cattleya
Cattleya gaskelliana

Cattleya gaskelliana

Systematics
Order : Asparagales (Asparagales)
Family : Orchids (orchidaceae)
Subfamily : Epidendroideae
Tribe : Epidendreae
Sub tribus : Laeliinae
Genre : Cattleya
Scientific name
Cattleya
Lindl.

Cattleya is a genus of orchids thatis nativeto South America . It was named after the British orchid gardener William Cattley and comprises around 45 species thatgrow epiphytically (tree-dwelling) or lithophytic (rock-dwelling). Due to the large, colored flowers, they are quite common in cultivation.

description

Cattleya dowiana , illustration

From a creeping rhizome arise in each vegetation period elongated, in cross-section round or oval shoots , which can be thickened to club-shaped pseudobulbs or grow cylindrical and not thickened. The growth of new roots also happens periodically. At the upper end of the pseudobulbs there are one or two (rarely three) leathery to fleshy leaves , the shoots themselves are covered by membranous, drying down leaves. The leaf shape is oval to broadly lanceolate. On the basis of the number of leaves per shoot, a distinction is made between two groups, the so-called unifoliaten (one-leaved, e.g. Cattleya labiata ) and the bifoliat (two-leaved, e.g. Cattleya intermedia ) Cattleyas .

The racemose inflorescence appears terminal from a single or double flower sheath. It usually bears a few large flowers . Rarely does the inflorescence appear on a leafless shoot from the rhizome. The flowers are resupinated , fragrant, pink or yellow in the single-leaf cattleyas, brown-red, green, white and pink, sometimes spotted, in the two-leaf cattleyas. The sepals are elongated-oval shaped, the petals are either shaped the same way or much wider, often with a crinkled edge. The lip is three-lobed, the side lobes are only indistinctly set off in the single-leaved species, but in all species they are curved upwards around the column . The lip and column are not grown together. Is located at the base of a lip Nectary , the rearwardly into the ovary protrudes and is visible from the outside so as not spur. The column is white or pink, at the end it bears the stamen bent down towards the flower axis . This contains four pollinia .

The plants are pollinated by nectar-seeking bees. The round-oval capsule fruits take nine to ten months to mature. The embryos are partly fully developed after three months, but the capsule opens much later.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 40.

Cattleya guttata
Cattleya luteola
Cattleya maxima
Cattleya percivaliana
Cattleya schilleriana
Cattleya warneri
Cattleya warscewiczii

distribution

The species of the genus Cattleya are widespread in the northern half of South America. Two main areas of distribution are the Andes and southeastern Brazil. They grow epiphytically there, more rarely on rocks or on the ground.

Systematics

Within the subfamily Epidendroideae , the genus Cattleya is classified in the tribe Epidendreae and there in the subtribe Laeliinae . Cattleya is closely related to Brassavola , Cattleyella , Guarianthe, and Rhyncholaelia . As described above, two groups can be distinguished within the genus based on the number of leaves per shoot and the shape of the flower. The single-leaved species (subgenus Cattleya , type species Cattleya labiata ) occur mainly in the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, with only two species in eastern Brazil, the two-leaved species (subgenus intermediae ) are found in southeastern Brazil.

Van den Berg proposed an extension of the genus Cattleya to include all sophronitis species (including those renamed from Laelia to Sphronitis in 2000 ).

A total of 130 species have been recognized in this genus (as of 2020). Here is a selection:

There are a number of named natural hybrids. There is also a large number of around 400 synonymous scientific names.

Culture

Cattleya hybrid from breeding

The species produce large, colored flowers and were popular ornamental plants shortly after the first plants were introduced to Europe, around 1830.
Numerous hybrids, including those with related genera such as Laelia and Sophronitis , are on the market.
Almost all of them need plenty of light, a period of rest with a dry substrate, high humidity and good ventilation.

Trivia

“Playing Cattleya” is a private erotic code word between the protagonist Swann and his future wife Odette in Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cássio van den Berg et al .: A phylogenetic analysis of Laeliinae (Orchidaceae) based on sequence data from internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. In: Lindleyana. 15 (2) 2000, pp. 96-114. Online ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 20, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cassiovandenberg.com
  2. ^ C. van den Berg: New combinations in the genus Cattleya (Orchidaceae) . In: Neodiversity . tape 3 , 2008, p. 3–12 ( cassiovandenberg.com [PDF]).
  3. ↑ a b Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Cattleya. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved April 6, 2020.

Web links

Commons : Cattleya  - album with pictures, videos and audio files