Cattleya Orchids

When most people think of an orchid, they think of a cattleya orchid, the prom-night corsage. Important in orchid history, the genus was named after William Cattley, the English horticulturist who first brought these beautiful plants into flower outside of their native habitat. Cattley didn’t intend to discover a genus of highly evolved flowering plants. He was devoting his efforts to the lowly mosses and lichens shipped to him from South America by a plant explorer named Swainson. In preparing his shipments, Swainson used the cattleya plant’s stiff leathery leaves and pseudobulbs to reinforce the bundless of mosses. Cattley’s curiosity was piqued by the odd plants, so he potted the up. When the plants started blooming in 1824, Cattley showed the to John Lindley, a famous botanist. Lindley recognized that these gorgeous flowers were new to science, and named the genus Cattleya and the species labiata, in reference to the flower’s impressive lip. Word of the discovery spread quickly, inciting an orchid mania. To this day, the cattleya orchid reigns as queen of the orchids.

Cattleyas are divided into two groups according to the number of leaves arising from the pseudobulbs: unifoliate and bifoliate.

Unifoliate cattleyas have a single leaf on each pseudobulb, and grow between 1 and 2 feet tall. The flowers, borne one to five per stem, are between 2 and 7 inches across.
Hybrid flowers may be even larger. Their large, ruffled lip is often marked with colorful patterns.

Unifoliates may also be called labiates in reference to Cattleya labiata, the most important species in the group. Although other unifoliates were once commonly grown, they are now expensive and difficult to obtain, having been largely supplanted by hybrids.

Species in the bifoliate group of cattleyas have two (or sometimes three) leaves atop long, slender pseudobulbs. Bifoliates range from 15 inches to 5 feet tall. The flowers, which are generally thicker and smaller than those of the unifoliates, are borne 10 to 25 per spike and usually last longer than those of the unifoliates.