Comparing Eulophia - Species Or Hybrid ?

There is a condition in the orchid growing world that I call 'Species Snobbery' whereby a grower will look down his (or her) nose at any orchid that isn't a botanical species. I am glad to say I don't suffer from this condition. Quite often hybrids display the best attributes of their parents and are often far more forgiving of mistakes in culture than species can be. Of course there are numerous instances of a hybrid inheriting all the worst characteristics of its parents, too. Then there are the genera which for some reason the hybridists haven't been playing with yet. Into this category, at least to my mind, falls the genus Eulophia. As some of the sharper eyed of my readers might recall reading, I have in my possession a (an?) Eulophia hybrid. On its own, it has a lot going for it. There are 17 flowers on its flower spike, nicely spaced out on quite a tall stem.

Rather pretty, isn't it ? I still like the way the petals rise up above the lip like a little crown. The flower bears a resemblance in its form and colouring to Eulophia guineensis; one of its parents. In fact, the plant is a full three quarters Eulophia guineensis and carries lots of characteristics of its guineensis parent. Unfortunately, one of these traits is the unwillingness of it to bloom consistently. Eulophia guineensis is renowned for being bloom shy, and the hybrid is no exception to that.  Having said that, when it does bloom, the flower count and spike length is way higher than E. guineensis. The other species in the mix here is Eulophia euglossa which produces tall spikes with lots of flowers on. Sadly the flower is (at least to some people's eye) rather dowdier than E. guineensis, and this is another trait it has passed on to the hybrid, shrinking the lip size, washing out the pink colour and giving more brown to the upward pointing tepals. Luckily for our discussion, I do have Eulophia guineensis in bloom at the same time as the hybrid so I can compare them.

I will say right now that this looks to me to be a particularly good form of the species (line breeding I guess). You can see that the lip is much broader and more boldly coloured, and also that the upward pointing tepals are much pinker than the hybrid. Eulophia guineensis has produced two flower spikes from one growth (actually I have two plants; one has produced two spikes from one growth, the other has produced three growths and one spike...go figure). The flower count is lower with seven flowers on one spike and three on the other. Still a good show, though.  If we look at the flowers side by side, we can see the difference in flower size.

I should point out that the hybrid (on the left) is slightly closer to the camera, so looks slightly bigger than it actually is in relation to Eulophia guineensis on the right. I think you'll agree that the hybrid just has more washed out tones all round.

In terms of the plant itself (its a mistake to only look at flowers when making hybrids after all), they are actually quite similar. The hybrid has inherited taller pseudobulbs from E. euglossa, but they are not at all unweildy. The plant is slightly bigger than E. guineensis but isn't vastly bigger. Flowers are produced in the same way; as new growth emerges the flower spikes overtake them and bloom as the leaves are unfurling but before the new pseudobulbs have formed. As I mentioned before, Eulophia guineensis is known for being an unreliable bloomer.

Both of my plants have bloomed this year and I think I know what triggered it; though it might prove more luck than judgement. Once the leaves go yellow in the autumn, water is withheld completely. I don't give any water at all until new growth starts. Having said that, watering during the rest period doesn't seem to do any harm but it doesn't seem to get the plants going any earlier either. I don't keep them significantly cooler, just dry. I imagine they need to feel threatened before they decide to bloom. After all, if the plant is too comfortable it has no reason to bloom. Where the hybrid is concerned, Eulophia euglossa is a cooler grower, so I might have kept it too warm. Having said that, last year I put the plant in my (cooler) living room to bloom, only to watch the buds form and drop off one by one. I have several plants (not for much longer), and only one has bloomed.

Another thing with Eulophia guineensis and its hybrid is that they can take up quite a lot of room as they age. Each pseudobulb is quite fat and the plant will increase in width by at least a pot size every year. When repotting, there is a temptation to remove backbulbs and pot them separately to make new plants. This works fine and new plants invariably grow away fine, but I think it prevents the mother plant from blooming and this might be where their reputation for resenting disturbance comes from. I haven't found them to resent disturbance at all....repotted plants grow away just fine but tend not to bloom the following year. Potting on seems fine. Keeping the plants dry during winter does have the advantage of making the potting medium last longer than it otherwise would, but at some point flowers have to be sacrificed in order to replace the potting medium that is breaking down.

In summary, and tying back into the opening paragraph (which feels so long ago I'm almost tempted to post a link to it), I have to say I greatly prefer the species to the hybrid on this occasion. This hybrid has fallen into the classic trap of not being any better than its parents, having inherited only some of the good traits and quite a lot of the not so good ones. Of course, it is a very lovely plant in its own right and you can only be so scathing toward it when growing it next to at least one of its parents. Just to finish, look at the lovely nectar spur on the back of Eulophia guineensis; much shortened on the hybrid.