Dragonseye: I am not breeding this species at present - I have in the past - since I have quite enough living material to work with for now. I am more interested in segregating the most vigorous and best-flowered clones for vegetative propagation to get the species well-established in cultivation from seed-grown stock of known provenance, esp. from the colchicine-treated set. I am currently stockpiling choice clones of another very attractive Mesoamerican ping sp. in order to do some test crosses in 2018, since I am intrigued in the possibilities of generating new colors and larger/better flower forms in that one as well.
hcarlton: I am not entirely sure what point you are trying to make here. I did not invoke the term "var." in my post, so no confusion should arise. I only highlight previously undescribed color variation in flowers of this sp. While they are commonly used interchangeably in hort circles, I much prefer "forma" (fa.) alba or simply "alba" as a suffix to the specific epithet when describing albino flowered wild-origin plants. You don't appear to be clear what a semi-alba is in this context, i.e. a flower with visible background white that is "splashed", picoteed or otherwise marked with a darker color. In pings, perhaps the best example of what I consider a semi alba is the "ANPA A" form of
P. moranensis from Hidalgo. No doubt due to my phone's camera's limitations, the colors of the splash-petaled flower in #2 shown looks muddier than in life, but it does indeed have areas of white that normally would be pink or purple.
An "ANPA A"
Albino flowers in otherwise purple-flowered plants are relatively commonplace in some plant families in the Neotropics. Indeed, AFAIK, in orchids, all of the purple flowered
Cattleya, Guarianthe and
Laelia spp. have well-established alba forms in cultivation. We know relatively little about the frequency of this in plants in nature in the tropics, but there so appear to be certain populations that produce noteworthy numbers of albas (e.g.
Guarianthe skinneri in NW and central Costa Rica) while in others they are incredibly rare (
G. skinneri in Chiapas and Guatemala). A similar situation exists for the national flower (orchid) of Guatemala,
Lycaste virginalis, where specific ecotypes are dominated by alba forms. It *appears* that albino flowers occur in lower numbers in Mesoamerican pings, in spite of many of the species being naturally white or partially white-flowered. Besides the two Mexican alba forms of
P. moranensis that are common in cultivation, I have seen a couple pure-white flowers in the high Cuchumatanes of western Guatemala amidst a population numbering many thousands of plants. That said, for a wide variety of reasons, I am confident that further artificial propagation/line-breeding of
P. mesophytica will indeed generate pure white-flowered plants.
I'm curious as to where you get the idea that one has to "register" a var. alba for it to be a valid term? Again, the term "var. alba" is utilized promiscuously by orchid, gesneriad, cacti, etc. growers when white-flowered sports appear in artificially-propagated material or wild populations. Are all the
P. moranensis alba clones in cultivation "registered"? If so, where? The RHS? The ICPS?
Since I don't know you, it is entirely possible that you are familiar with
P. mesophytica across the various populations in its range states. It is also possible (but rather unlikely) that you are familiar with the different captive colonies of wild-origin plants held in Guatemala City, Antigua Guatemala, San Salvador, Mexico City and San Francisco. I am unaware of any other images posted of significant color variation in this sp., including Lampard, et. al. Since there was (is?) a great deal of confusion amongst growers outside of CentrAm as to the identities of plants in cultivation and relatively few Gringos have seen this sp. in nature, coupled with having lived in Guatemala for most of my life up until recently, you will understand that I am reluctant to defer to "internet authorities" as to what the full range of colors in the sp. is.
J
