This is not off topic even though the beginning may sound like it is, so
please bear with me:

I recently heard that when wolves are tamed, one of the side-effects of
taming is that their fur turns a lighter color. I forget exactly what the
explanation was, but I think it was something like the same chemical
substance being responsible for anxiety/fear/wildness in character as well
as darkness of fur.

Leap in thinking from wolves to orchid plants ...

This made me wonder about some of the effects that cultivation has on orchid
species.

I would guess that a cultivated orchid species might grow bigger and live
longer than its wild counterpart of the same species, etc. That at least
would seam logical to me, since the cultivated species are likely to be
fertilized more regularly, and the environment is more likely to be adjusted
to be closer to ideal conditions than might occur in nature, if the grower
knows what they are doing. Also I know that plants within the species won't
be exactly the same, and the orchid grower might decide to cross two orchids
that are in the same species and share some trait that does not occur in all
orchids of this species to try to promote this trait which might have gotten
lost in the wild (where natural selection or chance might have caused this
trait to not be propagated).

Any other ideas? Either based on your experience, your knowledge, or your
hypothesizing on this subject?

I would be interested in finding out more. I wonder if there are any effects
that cultivation has had on orchid species that are less obvious/logical
(similar to the lightening of fur in wolves, which I would never have
guessed if I had not learned about it).

Are there any good examples of orchids where the same species in cultivation
tends to be quite different in some significant way from its wild
counterpart?

Thanks,
Joanna