catasetum pileatum 'green gold; x catasetum susan fuchs - Ctsm Penang type II

another sibling of the Ctsm Pileatum 'Green Gold' x Ctsm Susan Fuchs, i labelled this as Ctsm Penang type II. the flower has a prominent whitish callus, unlike the sibblings which is entirely maroon red. however the flower size is much bigger, the biggest one is about 8.5mm, with range of 7.9 to 8.5 cm.

catasetum imperiale

this species was initially named catasetum pileatum var 'imperiale' but was later recognized to be a species by itself. another synonym is catasetum bungerothii var imperiale. the word imperiale is to used to denote the large bright color flower of this species.
some believe that it is still a variety of a pileatum, some regarded it as a species of its own and it is even thought be a natural cross between a macrocarpum and a pileatum, HOWEVER artificial crossing of these two species fails to reproduce any close resemblance of this species. one of the more commonly known cultivar of this species is the 'Pierre Courret'.

this plant came with an infected psedobulb, initially got the infection controlled and soon a new growth appears. but when the new growth's spike is semi developed, the backbulb started to turn yellow and one of the flower buds fell as well.
upon removal of the infected bulb i thought the whole spike is a goner but luckily three made it. although the imperiale is sort after by many catasetum collectors, but my favorite is still the white pileatum.

appearance of the spike, 3 flowers

close up on the lip

catasetum pollination

for those who had been asking (including myself when i first started off with this genera), i would like to take this opportunity to show those that are interested in catasetum pollination

below here the first pic is the pic of a female flower, focusing the the stigma cap (the white structure sitting on top of the stigma cavity). the other light green structure with a pointed tip is the beak anther.
to start pollination, remove off the stigma cap, it has a sticky part that resembles the viscidum of the male pollen,

below the video clip shows the deposition of the pollina onto the stigma cavity. sorry that it is a little 'shaky' as i was doing it single handed while the other hand is holding the camera. 

the second pic below is how i labelled my plants after the pollinaiton. ALWAYS labelled them after you are done. included in the tag is the crosses of the parents, the pollen parent and the date of pollination. once the tag is lost, it is merely impossible to identify the crossing when they flowered, this is especially true for complex hybrids that involves back cross. (a single pod can give rise to progeny with different colors, shapes and pattern of hybrids)

a catasetum pods may take up tp 8-9 months for maturity but for sowing purpose, i harvest them when they are 75% mature at least. sowing a green pod is easier as one can skipped off the seed sterilizing process.
HOWEVER i had heard and experience it myself that some pods had a much shorter maturity time, the recent one i had was three months four days. initially i could not believe it myself either till i opened up the cracked seed pod and there is tonnes of seeds in it. 

below is an update on the progress of the five seed pods with labels attach. if the pods manage to mature, may try sowing with commercial media this time. will update in this thread if i do.

update on progress of the seed pod 7/1/2013

(pic below)

pic taken on 12/2/2013 (pic below), pod attaining full size 

22/2/13, one of the seed pod did not make it. down to three pods left. what a bummer....the seed pod on the left of the pic is discolored. 

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