South Coast Orchid Society

Kay Francis Photo Archive:
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Cattleya guttata alba (197908H9_7)

Cattleya guttata alba, August, 1979. Kay did not label this slide, but the plant closely resembles the labeled slide from 1963. While the earlier slide shows that Kay had the famous Cattleya guttata alba that was introduced by Ben Bracey, by 1979, "alba" cultivars of Lc. Leafwood Lane, registered by Stewart's in 1973, were also in circulation. The two forms would be indistinguishable in photos, even if measurements of the flowers were included. And while Bracey's form is now considered Cattleya tigrina, the parentage involved in Leafwood Lane is still shown as 75% of the real Cattleya guttata, and 25% of what was then Laelia xanthina, now Cattleya xanthina. Whether the form used for the original Leafwood Lane was a "true" guttata, or one of the forms then circulating that were later referred to leopoldii and then transferred to tigrina, needs to be reviewed.