Blooms

The first bud on my Doritis pulcherrima opened this week.  The vibrant magenta color always amazes me.  How can something be naturally so bright?  Doritis plants produce flowers that are only about a half inch to 3/4 inch across and have such a dainty structure to them.  Their colors typically range from white, to pink-and-white, to bright solid pink, to a soft lavender.  My plant is the bright solid pink.

As a side note, there is some debate about whether doritis is its own group of orchid, of it they really fall under phalaenopsis. I'm not familiar with the specifics of the arguments, but if you google "doritis pulcherrima" and you get results for "phalaenopsis pulcherrima", it's the same thing.  Since I've known my plant as "doritis" since I bought it, I intend to continue referring to it as such.

This first flower that opened has an odd phenomenon occurring.  It's almost like a siamese twin where there are three extra petals and a duplicate column and anther.  I've seen this doubling of sorts occur on other orchids before, usually at the big-box stores and assumed there was something genetically wrong with the plant.  I've never seen it occur on any of my own plants until now.  This plant has bloomed many times and all looked normal.  So maybe it's a random occurrence and doesn't have a whole lot to do with the genetic health.  Who knows.

Here are a couple of photos of the doritis.

Dor. pulcherrima

Here is another photo of the Phrag, which I took this morning.  This is bloom #2 and I saw another baby bud tucked up in the sheath, so there will hopefully be at least one more flower after this one drops.

Phrag. fischeri x besseae