Plant of the Week 11/27/2006: Brassocattleya Maikai

Plant of the Week 11/27/2006

Brassocattleya Maikai

Photographed by: Chelsie Vandaveer
Credits: Maikai orchid photographed in Chelsie's personal collection.
Other Information: Olympus C-8080wz

Brassocattleya Maikai is an intergeneric hybrid, a cross between Brassavola nodosa and Cattleya bowringiana. The Cattleya, the pollen parent, lends the hybrid its lavender color; the Brassavola, the seed parent, donated its fragrance, the shapes of the leaves, and its spots. (The spots are seldom noticed on the white flowers of the Brassavola.) Maikai is a fall to winter bloomer; the photographed plant usually blooms mid-November through the end of December.

Orchid hybridizing is not as simple as removing the pollen from one plant and placing it on the pistil of another. Orchids to be crossed usually must be in the same alliance, that is, genetically compatible by having the same number of chromosomes. Both Brassavola and Cattleya are in the Cattleya alliance. Of course, whenever dealing with genetic compatibilities, there are always exceptions to the rule and even some closely related orchids are not genetically compatible.

In the 1930s, Mr. Y. Hirose began importing species orchids into Hawaii. Through World War II, he continued building his nursery and stock of orchids, and tried his hand at hybridizing. By 1942, the Hirose Nursery in Hilo was shipping flowers and plants by air. In 1944, Hirose listed Brassocattleya Maikai with the International Orchid Register. By the end of the war, Hawaii had a new crop, orchids, added to all the other tropical crops like sugar, pineapples, and bananas.

(Compiled from: A History of the Orchid, Merle A. Reinikka, Timber Press, Portland Oregon, 1995; Orchids, Their Botany and Culture, Alex D. Hawkes, Harper & Row, New York, 1961; and "Hints on Hybridizing Orchids", Todd Boland, The Journal of the Canadian Orchid Congress, Vol. 6, No. 2, March 1994)