Saturday, September 1, 2012

catasetum pileatum 'snow cup'

this is the pileatum i like the most, the white pileatum. the came came from the latin word 'pileatus' which means bonnet shape, referring to the large concave lip of the flower. therefore a pileatum should always have a concave lalbellum. this flower was the national flower of Venezuela until 1921.
no callus should be present on the labellum of a pileatum, and the lip should be concave, maybe flatter in some clones but never folds to the back. any presence of calluses or backward folding of the lip is usually a hybrid rather than a pure pileatum. most of the pileatum has longitudinal ribs that runs vertically down from the sac depression of the labellum.
the flowers are large, i am not sure if it is the largest among the catasetums but it is definitely the largest in my collection, the buds started out with light green color and the color gradually turn whitish and eventually white as it matures.
below are a few pics from this plant of mine, showing the gradual coloration changes of the flower bud as it opens. the bulb of this plant is currently slightly over 10inches and it is 31inches plus from base of the bulb till the apex of the leave. a very robust plant and i do hope it will continue to grow bigger in the subsequent cycle.


 the green bud below is the appearance of the flower bud before full maturity, it is greenish in color and the coloration gradually turns white as the bloom matures

the appearance at full bloom

just a close up on the anther beak structure (just toying around with the camera)

 these are large flowers, the height is near to 10cm and the width is 8cm
appearance of the entire plant, not shown here but the second spike is emerging. =)


size of the bulb is 10inches plus, near to 11. so far this one is the record holder in my collection for catasetums

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