''Laelia albida'' is the most northerly-growing laelia in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. This

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

orchid bears ten or more small (5 cm) pale pink flowers on a half-meter terminal inflorescence in late winter to early spring. It is cold-tolerant close to freezing in the winter and needs to be kept dry until new vegetative growth is seen in late spring. It seems to do much better mounted on cork or hardwood than potted. The

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

number of ''L. albida'' has been determined as 2''n'' = 42 and as 2''n'' = ~63.page 252. Leonardo P. Felix and Marcelo Guerra: "Variation in chromosome number and the basic number of subfamily Epidendroideae (Orchidaceae)" ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' 163(2010)234-278, The Linnean Society of London

References

External links

Photos (Laelia Albida)
Orchids of Mexico Epiphytic orchids albida {{Laeliinae-stub