The taxonomists have, needless to say, been messing around with the names and this plant was always known as Miltassia, which is an intergeneric hybrid between Miltonia and Brassia. The sharper eyed among my readers will notice that the word Miltassia is simply a shortened version of Miltonia and Brassia shunted into one word. The new name, Bratonia, is......the other half of Miltonia and Brassia shunted together and shortened. Confused? You should be. I'm not sure what the reasoning is here, other than to confuse innocent enthusiasts. One theory I have has to do with who the mother and father of the hybrid are. What I mean to say is that if the mother plant (the pod parent) is Brassia, then that should be the first credit in the generic name, with the plant that provided the pollen bringing up the rear, as it very much were. I'm not sure what happens if someone decides to cross them the other way (or even if that would work), but would it be called Bratonia, or Miltassia? One for the hive mind, I think.
I can't quite make up my mind about this flower. If you Google for pictures, you will mostly find much stronger colours than I see in my plant. Although I think it is pretty in its own way, I find the colours rather....well, dowdy. It could be that there are better clones out there than this, and I suppose the lighting must make a difference too. I might also be being a bit impatient and the colour will deepen as the flowers mature, but somehow I doubt it as I remember thinking the same the last time it bloomed.
My regular readers will have probably noticed that I don't grow very many Oncidium alliance plants, even though I love them. This is because I can't give them the lower temperatures they need, especially in winter at night (I'm only meaning they mostly need a night minimum during winter of around 10C, not a deep freeze). However, I do grow both Miltonia and Brassia as they both seem to enjoy higher temperatures. These intergenerics seem quite happy to be kept warm, too. I got good flowering out of my Beallara Eurostar (or whatever name it goes by these days) before I gave it away in an exchange, and the same is true for Bratonia Shelob. Each pseudobulb blooms at its appointed time with no intervention from me whatsoever. I'll even go so far as to say that the flower count is improving too, though 7 or 8 seems the limit for me (I assume the lower flower counts usually found on Miltonia is the reason for this).
You will notice from the quite bizarre angles I'm having to hold the camera at in these photos that Bratonia Shelob isn't the world's best flower arranger. While the flower may have a very Brassia like shape, the arrangement of flowers on the spike has none of the elegance of the Brassia. This is a great shame, because it would be a quite stunning hybrid if it only arranged its flowers a little better (thanks, Miltonia!)
As Bratonia hybrids go, this one is nice and compact with the flowers held above the foliage so at least the plant looks vaguely tidy. I think I have even detected a light fragrance, though there are so many other much more scented orchids in bloom, I could have been mistaken.
Not long after I got hold of this plant in an exchange, I found another one in a local garden centre. Unlabelled, except as 'Orchid, Mix', it was quite a large plant which I have now divided into two, both of which are now in spike. I shall look forward to comparing them to this one, though I doubt if they'll be significantly different. When they bloom, I'll post again so I have a record of each blooming.
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