How do hybrid varieties of Cymbidium faberi differ from traditional varieties
In 2003, collected in Hubei, both foliage and flower are exceptional (the foliage is crystal-patterned, the flower is a lotus-type narcissus form). When collected, it was 4 plants with flowers and soil, no divisions seen. The plants are about 30-plus cm tall, with crystal striping, distinctive features. Leaf posture is semi-upright, leaves wide and thick (widest leaf about 2 cm). The flower opens as a large lotus-type narcissus, outer petals with narrowed base and rounded tips, the column...
The large-scale appearance on the market of Cymbidium faberi technology (artificially hybridized) plants has caused some confusion among orchid friends who do not understand the details, with opinions varying, no consensus reached, and anxiety spreading! Below is a brief explanation for orchid friends of the main differences between this line of artificially hybridized Cymbidium faberi and traditional old Cymbidium faberi varieties, newly collected wild plants, and collected-and-acclimatized plants, to help the broad community of orchid friends identify and distinguish them and avoid being deceived...
1. Plant characteristics: This line of artificially hybridized Cymbidium faberi are all greenhouse-grown plants from a Taiwanese orchid nursery in Guangdong, with typical southern greenhouse plant characteristics: vigorous growth, dark green leaf color...
2. Root characteristics: The growing medium used is bark plus perlite, cultivated in soft plastic nutrient pots, the root system grows well, medium in length, thin root skin, white root color, no burned tips...
3. The old-plant portion of undivided clumps has typical characteristics of hardened flask seedlings from seed sowing: the root diameter is small and the part near the pseudobulb is green (the "small green roots" familiar to orchid friends); the plant condition of the old-plant portion is as short, thin, and narrow as that of Cymbidium goeringii, and its leaves, whether in length, width, or thickness, show an obvious order-of-magnitude difference from the new-plant portion that grew as a second flush from the old-plant portion; the new-plant portion is similar to the normal plant condition of ordinary Cymbidium faberi, and contrasts obviously with the old-plant portion that came from hardened flask seedlings...
4. Flower characteristics: Because both its parents are old Cymbidium faberi varieties, its flowers mostly carry a shadow of some old Cymbidium faberi flowers but are only superficially similar; and because it is an unpurified first-generation hybrid from seed sowing, its flower quality varies enormously, with crooked and misshapen flowers making up the majority, and truly excellent flowers accounting for only a very small proportion...
In summary, comparing this line of artificially hybridized Cymbidium faberi with traditional old Cymbidium faberi varieties: the plant condition of new and old plants of artificially hybridized plants differs greatly, while the plant condition of new and old plants of traditional old Cymbidium faberi varieties differs little; the roots of the old-plant portion of artificially hybridized plants show the typical small green roots unique to flask seedlings, while the roots of traditional old Cymbidium faberi varieties cannot produce small green roots; although their flowers more or less carry a shadow of old varieties, they also differ more or less from any single traditional old variety, and with just a little comparison, the superior and inferior are immediately apparent; compared with newly collected wild flowers: artificially hybridized plants show obvious characteristics of cultivated acclimatized plants, and are clearly distinguishable from the horizontally extending roots and coarse wild leaf character of newly collected wild flowers; compared with collected-and-acclimatized plants: the old-plant portion of artificially hybridized plants, because it was originally a flask seedling, is obviously shorter and smaller than the new-plant portion, whereas the original mountain old-plant portion of collected-and-acclimatized plants is obviously taller and larger than the new-plant portion after cultivation and acclimatization, clear at a glance...
For some orchid friends, this thing still presents one "new face" after another at present, so it is inevitably somewhat unfamiliar; in fact, as long as one has more contact with it, I believe one will, like the earlier-market Cymbidium goeringii artificial hybrids, always be able to tell it with about eighty or ninety percent accuracy.