Colorful Orchid Flower

Cattleya Orchid

The Cattleya, favored by the florist and valuable as the parent of large and showy hybrids, is perhaps the orchid best known to the public. There are over forty species of Cattleya. In their native state the plants grow in thick clusters on trees—frequently mahogany or a type of acacia—and are so well protected by giant stinging ants that the only way to harvest them is to cut down the tree.

The Cattleya plant lacks beauty to the uninitiated, being composed of longish, rounded pseudo bulbs, which advance rhizome-fashion along the surface of the potting mixture, and are topped by one, two, or three long green leaves of firm leathery texture. The average Cattleya 'puts on' or grows one new pseudo bulb a year. After several new bulbs have been formed the old ones tend to lose their leaves and roots, becoming back bulbs. These back-bulbs are frequently referred to as poor relations, owing to their habit of sapping the energy of the growing end of the plant. If severed and placed in a warm, moist spot they will usually respond by sending forth new growth and roots to start a new plant.

A tiny swelling or dormant eye will be found at the base of each pseudo bulb in a Cattleya plant. In proper time the eye of the youngest bulb begins to swell and break into growth, acquiring new leaves and sending out new roots. A new pseudo bulb is formed and, in a healthy, well-cared-for plant, each will be finer and larger than the last. In case of injury to the fore bulb, one of the dormant eyes of an older bulb will break.