Welcome to the first post of Uncommon Female Orchids (UFO’s). In this context, uncommon means lower frequency occurrence, versus common, meaning a higher frequency occurrence.
The intent of this blog section is to detail and explain uncommon (low frequency) occurrences of certain orchid types or features.
Periodically, I’ll post a UFO feature with a short explanation and links (red underline) to the appropriate section of the Female Orchid Classification System (FOCS) for more common variations of that occurrence as a comparison.
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Below is the first post of UFO #1 where I have recently identified an uncommon feature. It is a variation of the Labia Extent feature which has common occurrence types of 1) continuous 2) open ended 3) segmented and 4) partial.
Generally, these 4 features are mutually exclusive (until now). For example, if the labia are continuous, it cannot be open-ended, segmented or partial at the same time. The first orchid image below has a Labia Extent of both partial and segmented. This is the only instance of this feature that I have identified to date.
Also, the segmentation of labium prime is uncommon with an example shown in image 2 below. This orchid is designated as Labia Extent – segmented. The more common cases of segmented labia are where the segmentation occurs on the labia lesser.
Do you have images of an uncommon orchid feature? Send them to me at Contact and I will post them on this blog if they qualify as uncommon.