Friday, May 18, 2012

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Betty Bracey 'Springtime'


More orchid genealogy today, since I can't think of anything much to say about this flower except that it seemed less green at the show.

The relevant crosses:

Betty Bracey = Gwenpur x Acteaus
Gwenpur = Gwen Hannen x Purity
Gwen Hannen = Christopher x Florence Spencer
Christopher = Actaeus x Leeanum
Actaeus = insigne x Leeanum
Leeanum = insigne x spicerianum
Purity = Maudiae x niveum
Maudiae = callosum x lawrenceanum
Florence Spencer = Actaeus x Memoria Jerninghamiae
Memoria Jerninghamiae = spicerianum x Winnianum
Winnianum = druryi x villosum

The end result, when you substitute the species crossed for the names of the crosses until you're down to nothing but species names:

Betty Bracey = ([{(insigne x [insigne x spicerianum]) x (insigne x spicerianum)} x {(insigne x [insigne x spicerianum]) x (spicerianum x [druryi x villosum])}] x [{callosum x lawrenceanum} x niveum]) x (insigne x [insigne x spicerianum])

Which if my math is right works out to:

Paph. insigne: 50.0% (32/64)
Paph. spicerianum: 21.9% (14/64)
Paph. niveum: 12.5% (8/64)
Paph. callosum: 6.3% (4/64)
Paph. lawrencianum: 6.3% (4/64)
Paph. druryi: 1.6% (1/64)
Paph. villosum: 1.6% (1/64)

I looked up Paph. insigne on Google just to see if Betty Bracey still resembled it at all, and was surprised to find that the answer was both yes and no: insigne is a lot more brown and spotted. There is, however, a naturally-occurring variety called Paph. insigne var. sanderae, which is yellow and white like Betty Bracey, so it may be that sanderae was what was used for most of the Paph. insigne genes, in which case yes, there's a resemblance.

The contributions of the other species involved are tougher to figure out; it looks like Paph. niveum may be responsible for the wider, fuller shape (the petals on both Paph. insigne and Paph. spicerianum are narrower than those on Betty Bracey). Of course, the contributions wouldn't necessarily be visible anyway -- they could be imparting disease resistance or larger/smaller flowers or something like that.


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