Mick Fournier wrote:
Pat,

My whole business is devoted to preserving and perpetuating the absolute
best of species. Cattleya species are especially important to me... it is
hard for me for to adequately express just how upset I am at this moment.

I am waiting patiently right here for Rob Halgren to respond to my question.

Oh Mick, you know I like to push buttons. I must have found one. I
don't know about your Cattleya species, or what your breeding program is
like. And devoting your life to cattleya species is an admirable thing,
more people should be as committed to various orchid genera.

But, my point was that there has been a lot of line breeding in
cattleyas (and phalaenopsis, and paphiopedilum, and anything else that
is worth having). It is my contention, however, that line breeding of
any species leads to results that are not typical of a wild type
population. In fact, due to abnormal selection pressures (big, flat,
color), you end up with a final product that can be very distant from
the original species. Heck, right now I have two Paph sukhakulii that
have flowers that are twice as big as anything you would find in the
jungle, and far better colored. And I love them to death. But they
don't represent the species all that well.

Now, is this good or bad? Depends. From a horticultural perspective,
probably good. Line breeding intensifies desirable characteristics. It
is certainly true that (for example) the latest generation Cattleya
walkeriana are far bigger and better formed than anything you would find
in a jungle. They are easier to grow, as well. This all leads to
increased popularity, which is excellent.

From a conservation perspective, line breeding is probably a very bad
thing. We lose characteristics (desirable or not) that we will never
get back. Once you breed an allele out of a population you can't recover
it. We might need that allele some day. Bananas (obviously they are
not orchids) have this problem, those yellow Cavendish bananas that
everybody buys at the supermarket are highly prone to a specific disease
that is spreading like wildfire. But every banana plantation on the
planet is planting an exact copy of the Cavendish banana. So there
isn't the genetic diversity out there to select a resistant clone.
Bananas are doomed!!! At least the ones we love to eat. Without some
serious genetic modifications, anyway (already in progress, have no fear).

But Mick, before your aorta pops, I'm not making a value judgment about
your plants. Any species orchid is worth keeping, line bred or not.
And the highly selected ones enhance the popularity of the species,
which is always good. But, from a purely genetic point of view, it is
probably good to also keep as many of the 'less desirable' clones as
possible, or at least the ones that represent as much of the natural
diversity as possible.


--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit