This seemed like an appropriate orchid to post on Valentine's Day.
Google suggests that the name may be, more precisely, Dendrobium nobile Sweet Pinky 'Love,' though this confuses me: a species name, grex (cross) name, and a clone name? Surely a plant can't have all three of those at the same time, can it?
In the conventions used in the orchid biz, Sweet Pinky is the name of the hybrid, Love is the name of the clone.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I missed the point. Dend. nobile is clearly one of the species used in this cross, but Dend. nobile Sweet Pinky "Love" doesn't make sense.
ReplyDelete...but Dend. nobile Sweet Pinky "Love" doesn't make sense." -- NYC
ReplyDeleteNo, it doesn't. This is not the species but rather a hybrid of D. nobile. "Nobile" should not have appeared on the tag.
Botanically it should be nobile-type Dendrobium, "nobile and closely-related species" or Section Dendrobium hybrid (used to be sect. Eugenanthe = well-born or noble flower), but in the trade they are sloppy and everyone uses "nobile hybrid". Dendrobium sect. Dendrobium X Sweet Pinky "Love" probably would not sell as well.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I wonder if they're fragrant?
ReplyDeleteBTW, Mr. S, the Product Manager from Head Office dropped by the greenhouse today. Said she'd ordered a butt load of dyed echeverias for Easter. Pink, purple, blue and yellow. You'd hate them - I'll probably hate them too. But they'll sell (fingers crossed).
;) Jenny
Lovely flowers.
ReplyDeleteSo this is another example where a plant has a horticultural trade name that's different from its botanical name. A botanical grex name is always Latin.
Don
Don, the Latin naming system is only used for those plants that are species. As this is a hybrid, the system of binomial nomenclature is no longer used.
ReplyDelete