Hi,

Does any know if any of these (Paph. stonei v. album 'Formosa' x self) have bloomed yet? I bought several seedlings (about 10" leafspan plants) and have quite some time before they bloom. I'm anxious though to see if anyone knows if any have bloomed yet and if they bloomed out album?

I did see a photo of this plant crossed to another album species and the resultant flower was album.

Thanks
Lien

They will bloom out album, as long as they are what they say they are.

Albinos must have an expressed homozygous recessive gene. And if you self it, it will always be an albino.

then why do flasks often come with the words should produce x% albinos?
(example: Paphanatics cross "sukhakulii 'Semi-Albino' x sib 'Super Albino'

should produce 50% albinos with hopefully wide petals";

vintage orchids' "charlesworthii (Half & Half" x self)
This is the second generation of crosses staring with 'Pride of Tokyo' as one of the parents.Â* The hope is to get alba flowers similar to Pride of Tokyo.Â* Approximately 25% of these plants could be alba."

I don't know much about breeding slippers but I always thought that albinos have 50% chance of coming out normal and 50% albinos. :confused: I have a Paph laevigatum aureum and the seller said it has a 50% chance of coming out normal. I do hope it is the aureum!

Theoretically, albinos should be recessive and what Steve said does hold true, a visual albino (homozygous) when selfed, should produce 100% albinos.

When you cross an albino to a normal, the resultant offspring should be normals that carry albino (heterozygous). When those offspring are selfed (or sibbed) they in turn will produce a percentage of albinos and a percentage of normals (some heterozygous for albino).

I'm not sure if the crosses likespaphs mentioned were using albino x albino, albino x self, f2 from albino x normal or what. That may account for some of the percentages being thrown around.

If you have an albino and are selfing it, in theory it should be 100% albinos (as Steve pointed out). In practice I know this is not always the case. I have done and know people who have selfed what they thought were albinos and did not get any albino offspring. Many reasons for this, one is that it was not a true albino to start off with.

I'm sure Steve can expand on this some more. I work with avian genetics so my experience with orchid genetics is quite limited, however the theorys apply all the same.

Lien

Thanks, Lien! I guess that does make sense. My Paph laevigatum aureum looks like it is about to spike for the first time, so I hope it is an aureum variety! Keeping my fingers crosses! :)

Okay, here is a better explanation.

If albinism were controlled by only one pair of genes:

Albino x Albino = All Albino
Albino x Regular = All Regular with recessive albinism gene
(Albino x Regular) x (sib or self) = 25% Albino, 25% Regular, 50% Regular with recessive albinism gene.

Why would you want an [(Albino x Regular) x sib]? For improved flower form. Natural albinos often have poor form. To increase quality of them, you cross them with a regular flower with good form, then self or sib it to get the albinism to show back up. Once it is albino, when you cross it with itself or a sibling, it should produce all albino children.

However, albinism is not controlled by merely one pair of genes. According to Dr. Koopowitz, it may be controlled by as many as 40 in paphs, resulting in the different color forms of yellows, whites, greens and any combination thereof.

Steve's explanation is a good one. I would also emphasize that an 'aureum' form is NOT an album form.

Oddly enough, this doesn't apply to cattleyas, in which album selfings are prone to coming out lightly or even fully colored forms.

Steve's explanation is a good one. I would also emphasize that an 'aureum' form is NOT an album form.

Oddly enough, this doesn't apply to cattleyas, in which album selfings are prone to coming out lightly or even fully colored forms.

I think this is because they are not true albino. It is much more likely that they are just regular plants with washedout colors. However, anything is possible.

They say you can't teach a old dog new tricks, man I am learning some serious stuff here!