Amy,

Unfortunately, all that the encyclopedia will be able to help you ID is
species plants or maybe one of the most characteristic hybrids that do not
have many look-alikes. For most tag-less hybrids, while you can make a
guess, and say that it looks closest to this or that, even experienced
growers cannot identify the plants for sure. However, many of us have some
unidentified plants that we know only the genus of, and that's ok. Unless
you want to get the same plants in the future, or unless you want your
plants to compete in a show or be part of a cross, I think the ID beyond the
genus does not matter all that much (at least for Phals, where all Phals
have approximately the same culture requirements -- I would think that for
Dendrobiums it matters more, since some should be watered during the rest
period and some should not, I am not familiar enough with Oncs and Paphs).

For an interesting archived thread dealing with the issue of impossibility
of identifying NoIDs for sure, see
http://groups.google.com/groups?thre... llglobal.com -
- I really enjoyed the parts about the finches in White Monkey's (Katrina's)
messages.

Best,
Joanna


"Amy" wrote in message
om...
Currently, I have 4 phalaneopsis, 2 Paphiopedilum and 2 oncidium.
However, I have yet to determine the specific species names.

I recently got The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids by Alec
Pridgeon for Christmas so soon I will know the specifics.