There's no real way to verify parentage in orchids, no. Orchid
growers are still a world better than, say, rose growers in that hybrids
have a registry that (if everyone plays nice) allows one to track a plant
back to its parent species- in theory. It is also my understanding that in
order to be awarded, judges have to know what the parents look like, and
note that the progeny is consistent with the putative parentage. Maybe
someone can elaborate upon that stray notion of mine.

That having been said, there is a large margin for error. For
example, some registered crosses from way the heck back when don't have
any parents listed for them (!). It has also been speculated that some
species were "improved" with other species, but retained the same name.
For example, some odontoglossums were "flattened" with the help of another
species, but are still reported to be a species, and not a hybrid. There
are also issues with accidental pollination; one has to make sure the
pollinia of the host plant (the one which will bear the capsule) have been
removed so that they are not accidentally deposited upon the stigmatic
surface as the flower ages and collapses. Many years ago, an artificial
form of this "mixed pollination" was trendy- placing the pollinia of 2 or
more plants on the stigmatic surface of the pod parent. No reputable
breeder would participate in such nonsense today. I hope. Still, nobody
has to prove in a court of law that the plant has had its parentage
provided for in a responsible manner. Moreover, there is a financial
incentive to provide that plant with a name, as unidentified orchids- no
matter how pretty- are worth far less for hybridizing. I know of one
grower who passed up his personal holy grail- a green phalaenopsis-
because it had no tag.

While these issues seem straightforward for divergent parents-
say, a pinkish doritaenopsis versus a moth-white phal, very different
plants- these issues become quite serious when trying to tell if there has
been any incidental "contamination" when dealing with line-bred plants, or
physically similar flowers. For example, let's say I'm breeding encyclias.
Personally, I can't tell the damned things apart. Anyway- if I were to
cross, say, Encyclia oncidioides with Encyclia tampensis, how would I know
if the progeny were, in fact, a hybrid, and not a very pink-lipped
tampensis, or a bland oncidioides? This becomes a serious consideration
with line-bred oncidiums, epidendrums, encyclias, cattleyas, phalaenopsis,
and other genera. Not the least concern should be not if the hybridizer,
grower, or the person repotting them screwed up, but if the *lab* screwed
up. Admittedly, I crank out a lot of plants, but there's been once or
twice where I had a flask labeled as one genus, and the contents were very
clearly that of another. Very early on in my career, I had one flask of
cattleyas with a sport that grew at least 4x faster and 10x heavier than
any of its colleagues. Eventually, it developed characteristics of a
catasetum while still in the flask. It was about 4" tall, while its
cohorts were 1". Catasetums grow like weeds; cattleyas are a bit slower.
Going back through my notes, I observed that the week before I sowed the
cattleyas, I put down (among other things) a flask of catasetums. It
dawned upon me that some seed must have stayed behind in the tubes I used
for disinfecting seed the week before.

Since then, I have autoclaved the seed disinfection tubes between
use, destroying any remaining seeds. That was about 5 years ago, and there
hasn't been that sort of problem since. Still, every now and again, I find
a transcription error; my notes are meticulous and complete (described by
a buddy of mine whom I consulted while building my database as "the most
detailed system" he had ever seen), but humans are prone to error even
under the best of circumstances. I now have a system that relies upon
barcodes and label printers, which largely puts the operator at the mercy
of the system. While not without their errors, barcode systems have a
substitution error rate of about 1 per million characters scanned. That's
at least an order of magnitude better than a human can do.

Mistakes happen. Anyone who has ever found a supermarket phal with
a plant tag that says "Onc. Sherry Baby" can attest to that. Then there
are intrinsic flaws in the system ("improvements" made without
recognition, hybrids without parents, that sort of thing), disreputable
dealers (which are almost certainly in the minority), and possibly a
little intentional misdirection.

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-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ