I was at USF Botanical Gardens today and they had a plant labeled Cattleya warscewiczii 'Alba'. I see we have the species entry in the database, but I don't know if a new entry should be created for what I saw. Putting alba in quotes makes it look like a cultivar, but I'm not sure if it is, since a lot of plants have an alba form that doesn't seem to be considered a cultivar. Hopefully, some orchid and taxonomy people can help? I'm like - But I'd like to add the pics to the database. Thanks for your assistance!

Hi, Mellie. Yes, it is a cultivar in this case. Here's an entry. Please add your photos to it.

Melanie, 'Alba' is a beauty!! You can read more about her here: http://www.dev.aos.org/AM/Temp...

Well, ignore my above post, looks like that is about one with the name of Alba Firmin Lambeau! I couldn't find one with just the cultivar name 'Alba' ... many others though with Alba in the title:

Labels sure are confusing, I found listings for

v. alba
alba 'Leo Holguin'
alba 'Snow Caesar'
semi alba
semi-alba 'Katia'

Thanks, Zuzu! Lin, you can see why I was so confused. Plus, orchid people are known to change the names about every week or so just to keep things interesting.

Lin, I suspect that Cattleya warscewiczii var. alba (or perhaps C. warscewiczii f. alba) was once one of the accepted intraspecific taxa of C. warscewiczii, but its status changed so long ago that it isn't even listed as a synonym any longer, so it seems reasonable to list it as a cultivar now. This also applies to the semi-alba name.