New name for an endemic hybrid.

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by alindsay

Dorts

Thanks for your response, though I was hoping for a description to pinpoint the features of this new creature ... ie long lobe, short lobe etc that made it different from a true fragrant or southern marsh orchid?
A

It's not easy without the plant in front of us for me to point out all the relevant features that lead to the determination of this hybrid. Often, at first, it is just the look of the plant that catches your attention.
The desicion that it is a hybrid is usually made quite soon after discovery. Then you look to see what two plants are involved, what were the parents.

In this case it is possible to note what each parent brings to the hybrid, such as the very slight 'blotches' on the lip from the Southern Marsh, and the three-lobes from the Fragrant. The thick stem from the SM , and the long spur from the Fragrant, the leaves were mid-way between the broad SM and the long, thin keeled Fragrants, and so on.

Hybrids between different genus are often 'bizarre', they look like no other orchid. Whereas hybrids between species will often look much like one of the parents.

This hybrid has been formally described and named in the 'New Journal of Botany' in great detail in Latin and English, which is normal procedure.
Dorts.

[alindsay]

Dorts

Thanks for the comprehensive narrative and checking my own photos of Fragrant & Southern Marsh, I get it, though couldn't spot one on my own.

However will this hybrid plant come again in subsequent years and if seeds germinate, will they come true to type?

Will the D M T Ettlinger Hybrid be around for years to come?

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by alindsay

Dorts

Thanks for the comprehensive narrative and checking my own photos of Fragrant & Southern Marsh, I get it, though couldn't spot one on my own.

However will this hybrid plant come again in subsequent years and if seeds germinate, will they come true to type?

Will the D M T Ettlinger Hybrid be around for years to come?

Inter-generic hybrids, which in themselves are very uncommon, are almost never fertile, so there is virtually no chance of such a plant setting seed.

However, as long as the two species continue to grow side-by-side in various parts of the country, as they do, there is always a chance that this hybrid will occur again, as it has done with the 4 or 5 plants in South Wales.

I have also heard recently from a friend who was with me at the time I saw the first plant in 1981, that he found the hybrid again in 2009 in almost exactly the same place! But it went un-recorded, which was a shame.

The original plant lasted for 4 or 5 years.
Dorts.

[alindsay]

Infinite possibilities from the Orchid world then ........

I will look harder and closer.

Thanks Dorts