"A NAME IS JUST A NAME"

Because I have received many questions concerning the names of orchids and what they mean, this month I have decided to visit this topic in the Orchid Garden. Let's try to figure out what all this "name calling" is all about. When I first started in this fascinating hobby, one of the main problems I had was with "TAGS." Now these are not just ordinary tags found in pots that read "Orchid Plant," these tags had names as long as the best-registered hound dog might have! Names like SLC Orient Amber 'Florida' AM/AOS.

Any orchid grower or serious hobbyist will tell you the first thing is to NEVER lose the tag! Why all the excitement over a silly name tag? Because Loosing a tag is like losing the plants' birth certificate or pedigree... placing the orchid's parentage in the ...ah... not quite so "legitimate" category. Reducing the status of your plant from an expensive purebred star to just another unidentifiable pound mutt.

SLC Orient Amber 'Florida' AM/AOS sounds very pretty but what does this entire name mean, and more importantly, what is it telling you about your orchid? With a little help I am going to explain a little about the why, where, and what is in the orchid name.

Orchid names use a binomial naming system-- a system using two names developed by Linnaeus. Each orchid has a first name and a last name much like most people. The sequence of the names, however, is written with the LAST name first which is always the name of the orchid's genus. The genus is the orchid's unique plant grouping. The second part of the name is either the species name within the group or a hybrid name. The species name is usually related to the discoverer of the species, or related to some aspect of the plant. The developer of the variation arbitrarily selects hybrid names. Using this system, you can always identify at least the orchid genus and species or hybrids, allowing you to know what type of orchid you have.

If this was all there was to the orchid names, we would all know all about our orchid, we would have reached the end of this article, and everyone would be happy. BUT there's more! A species that is just a little different than the original species-- but not enough to call it a different name, however-- also needs to be distinguished. In this case, you will see 'var' in the name: "Laelia flava var. aurantiaca" for example. Some orchids will also include a clonal or cultivar name, also called a nickname following the species or hybrid name. Although a clonal name is not part of the official name, it is useful to designate the difference between a particular clone of a cross from all of the other clones from the same cross (grex). The clonal name originates from the grower and will follow the plant whenever it is divided or meristems are made. The clonal name should always appear within single quotes. Here is an example of what we have just learned.

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4