"A name is just a name" - unless it belongs to an orchid.

Because I have received many questions concerning the names of orchids and what they mean, this month I have decided to visit this topic on these pages.
Let's try to figure out what all this "name calling" is all about.

When I first started in this fascinating hobby, one of the main problems I had was with "TAGS."
Now these are not just ordinary tags found in pots that read "Orchid Plant," these tags had names as long as the best-registered hound dog might have! Names like SLC Orient Amber 'Florida' AM/AOS.

Any orchid grower or serious hobbyist will tell you the first thing is to never lose the tag!

Why all the excitement over a silly name tag? Because loosing a tag is like losing the plants' birth certificate or pedigree - placing the orchid's parentage in the (ah!) not quite so "legitimate" category.
Reducing the status of your plant from an expensive purebred star to just another unidentifiable pound mutt.

SLC Orient Amber 'Florida' AM/AOS sounds very pretty but what does this entire name mean, and more importantly, what is it telling you about your orchid?

With a little help I am going to explain a little about the why, where, and what is in the orchid name.

Orchid names use a binomial naming system - a system using two names developed by Linnaeus. Each orchid has a first name and a last name much like most people.

The sequence of the names, however, is written with the LAST name first which is always the name of the orchid's genus.

The genus is the orchid's unique plant grouping. The second part of the name is either the species name within the group or a hybrid name.

The species name is usually related to the discoverer of the species, it is dedicated to someone, refers to the natural habitat or related to some aspect of the plant.

Concerning dedications, orchids dedicated to certain persons are not infrequently exceptionally spectacular representatives of their genera.

You may buy with confidence any orchid having species names say rotschildianum, schroederae, lindleyanum (dedicated to Baron Rotschild or Baron Schroeder financing many expeditions or to John Lindley, the "Father of Orchidology") and so on and on.

The breeder of a new form arbitrarily selects hybrid names. Using this system, you can always identify at least the orchid genus and species or hybrids, allowing you to know what type of orchid you have.

If this was all there was to the orchid names, we would all know all about our orchid, we would have reached the end of this article, and everyone would be happy. But there's more!

Notice that for example in the Laelia flava var. aurantiaca name the var. (varietas, in Latin) is not italicized.

This means a form of species that morphologically is just a little different than the original species - but not enough to call it a different name. However - also needs to be distinguished.

For the practical orchid hobbyist it is not irrelevant to know that varieties of a given species not infrequently may have flowers of different shape, size and color or may be geographically isolated forms requiring distinctly different environmental conditions.

In our present example "flava" means "yellow", while "aurantiaca" specifies "gold colored". That is, a form having darker colored flowers than the originally described form has.

Some orchids will also include a clonal or cultivar name, also called a nickname following the species or hybrid name. Although a clonal name is not part of the official name, it is useful to designate the difference between a particular clone of a cross from all of the other clones from the same cross (grex).

The clonal name originates from the grower and will follow the plant whenever it is divided or meristems are made. The clonal name should always appear within single quotes.

Here is an example of what we have just learned.

EXAMPLE: Laelia flava var. aurantiaca 'My Beauty'
Laelia = genus
flava = species
var. aurantiaca = a variety of flava called aurantiaca
'My Beauty' = clonal name (notice the single quotes around the name)

Now that we have the basics of orchid naming down, there are specific ways to write these names in an attempt to make them easier to understand.

Genus names start with a capital letter and are italicized or underscored. When abbreviated, a single capital letter or a group of letter consisting of 2-3 characters allowing diffrentiation of generic names beginning with the same letter are used.

For example to distinguish Paphiopedilum and Phragmipedium treated in the same text, the traditionally accepted abbreviations are P. for Paphiopedilum and Ph. for Phragmipedium.

The abbreviations are closed by a period. Most genera have traditionally acknowledged, "official" abbreviation.

The name of the species is always written in small letters and italicized.

Brassia verrucosa (or B. verrucosa) = verrucosa is a species of the genus Brassia.

To distinguish the name as a hybrid genus from a natural genus, an "X" is often placed before the hybrid name.

For example:

Beallara (or X Beallara) is a Brassia x Cochlioda x Miltonia x Odontoglossum hybrid created by Beall and is abbreviated Bllra.

As time and the knowledge of hybridizers increases, so do the creation of new and even more complex hybrids.

Six or more different genera are present in some modern hybrids. Each created hybrid is registered with the Royal Horticultural Society who then publishes the new hybrids in regular periodicals and, in every five years, publishes the Sander's Complete List of Orchid Hybrids.

For your convenience, an extensive list of the more common hybrids is available at this website here.

There is still one more item that you will find on many of the labels.

These are the letters that may be at the end of the name as in the orchid named Blc. Malworth 'Orchidglade' FCC/AOS.

FCC/AOS represent an award this parentage has won and who presented the award.

Many national, regional, and local Orchid Societies present awards. As each award is won, the appropriate award and Society presenting the award is added to the end of the orchid name.

Like all awards, who presents the award is sometimes more significant than the award received.
A national 3rd place award may be considered more significant than a local first place award.

Major International and National Orchid Organizations Presenting Internationally Recognized Awards
WOC = World Orchid Conference
EOC = European Orchid Council
AOS = American Orchid Society
RHS = Royal Horticultural Society
DOG = Deutsche Orchideen-Gesellschaft

Awards
FCC = First Class Certificate - the highest award from AOS and RHS
GM = Gold Medal - the highest award from DOG
AM = Award of Merit - 2nd place award from AOS and RHS
SM = Silver Medal - 2nd place award from DOG
HCC = Highly Commended Certificate - 3rd place award from AOS
BM = Bronze Medal - 3rd place award from DOG

Other Awards for superior cultivation
CCM = Certificate of Cultural Merit - awarded by AOS
CHM = Certificate of Horticultural Merit - awarded by RHS
CCC = Certificate of Cultural Commendation - awarded by RHS
CBR = Certificate of Botanical Recognition
AD = Award of Distinction
AQ = Award of Quality
JC = Judges' Commendation

Putting all of this together, you should now be able to make sense of an orchid name like

Blc. Malworth 'Orchidglade' FCC/AOS:

Blc. = a Brassolaeliocattleya hybrid created using Brassavola x Laelia x Cattleya

Malworth = The hybrid name or "fancy name"
'Orchidglade' = clonal name - a variation of the Malworth hybrid

FCC/AOS = First Class Certificate presented by the American Orchid Society

I realize there is still much more I could talk about in the naming of orchids, but I hope this little article will shed some light in to the mystery of that tag in the orchid pot and why you should not toss that little tag away.

One last note.
Although this is not written on the "tags", when writing the genus and species names it is not just proper but at times essential to to add the name of the author of the orchid, immediately after the name.

Abbreviating athor's names have their own, complicated traditions and rules, which are not observed at this website.

Instead of using abbreviations, wherever possible author's names are given in full in order to help the amateur orchid enthusiasts in understanding their orchids.

Mentioning author's names is not a kind of snobbery or unduly servilism, far from it. As many orchidologists did live or specialized in studying the orchids of particular geographic regions or even relatively narrow locations, the author's name might well be the most important indication about the natural habitat and, consequently, about the environmental requirements of a given orchid.

The simplest example of this could be that many English, German and French authors specialized in orchids native to the former Colonies of their countries.