A Shining Example

An unknown jungle cactus flower, a hybrid Epiphyllum, lost label. Losing a label is surprisingly easy to do, faded markers that weren't permanent after all or pencil lettering that just wears away over the years, broken clay pots with labels mixed amid plants and shards, plastic labels that just break apart after a few years in the sun, shipping errors, obtained without a label, and even forgetting to insert the right label into the pot immediately after re-potting. Yes, it's very easy to do and as a result, even with my small collection, over the years I've wound up with several unknowns. Some have flowers that are unique enough so that upon flowering again, the mystery will be solved, but most will remain unknown, largely because of similar flowers and also because they often don't look exactly the same from year to year.

Unknowns are less of a problem for Epiphyllums than for orchids. When an Epiphyllum seed pod develops, each seed can develop into a plant and flower vastly different from another. Therefore, if a flower is interesting and unusual enough to register, each individual seedling-flower is given its own name and the parents are noted when the flowers are registered. In some cases, many of the flowers are similar due to the parents involved, but often there is a total surprise. Because of this, parentage is less important and even 'unknown' plants with special flowers can be used for breeding.

With orchids on the other hand, the seed pods will produce similarly flowered plants, with some showing better traits than others. Therefore the whole cross is given a single name with those special ones which are often seen at shows or in breeding, each given their own additional clonal name for that individual plant. Orchids can be cloned so that these special plants can be reproduced for sale. Unless the unlabeled orchid can be positively identified, a lost label in orchids therefore, destroys the breeding value where parentage is so important to pass on qualities to seedlings.

As for my own 'lost labels', I have no intentions of showing or breeding, and the main loss would be in the sale of the adult plant whenever I get around to it. It wouldn't at all matter if someone was just buying it for the beauty of the flower, but if someone was looking for a named Epiphylum, I wouldn't be able to sell it on EBay, for example :D


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