Are Orchids Terrirtorial?

[Fairorchids]

Some plants have a finite life span (though I am not aware of this in orchids).

Some 25-30 years ago, a lot of the garden bamboo in Denmark died off for no discernible reason. It turned out that all dead clumps were divisions of the same clone - which had a life span of about 100 years.

Actually, I read an article about Paph wardii. In nature, plants do well for a few years, and then fade away. However, other plants sprout and flourish nearby.

The auther's theory was, that the plants exhaust necessary nutrients where they grow, thereby limiting their lifespan. In 'captivity' we overcome this limitation by repotting and fertilizing.

[Arizona Jeanie]

The inhibition of one plant's growth by natural chemicals from another plant is called "allelopathy". It's a fairly common characteristic, in fact has been studied for the development of herbicides. I couldn't find anything about orchids being allelopathic, but some of the other plants mentioned are: black walnut, ailanthus, and sorghum. It confers quite the competitive advantage!

[bil]

Originally Posted by Fairorchids

Some plants have a finite life span (though I am not aware of this in orchids).

Some 25-30 years ago, a lot of the garden bamboo in Denmark died off for no discernible reason. It turned out that all dead clumps were divisions of the same clone - which had a life span of about 100 years.

Actually, I read an article about Paph wardii. In nature, plants do well for a few years, and then fade away. However, other plants sprout and flourish nearby.

The auther's theory was, that the plants exhaust necessary nutrients where they grow, thereby limiting their lifespan. In 'captivity' we overcome this limitation by repotting and fertilizing.

Yeah. Pandas are the most crap anials on the planet. They are evolutionarily speaking carnivores, and they eat what is possiblly the least nuitritious plant on the planet. To add to that joy, bamboo organises a synchronised breeding where it all sets ses and then dies with a fallow period bbefore the seeds germinate and grow. Pity the poor panda when that happens.

[voyager]

Well, I have begun the first of at least 2 close mountings to see what happens.


I've places this Nobile Hybrid in close proximity to the Vanda you can see behind it.
It is so close that I had to cut several of the Vanda's roots out of the fork the Den was tied into.
And if I'm completely honest, in my enthusiasm to remove the Vanda's roots, I ended up ripping the Vanda loose and had to retie it back into its place. Well see how it fares.
I'm not too worried about it because it has several new roots starting.
It'll reattach itself again pretty quickly.

[Arizona Jeanie]

Oh lovely, they don't grow like that here! Lucky you...

[voyager]

This is the situation that prompted my original question:

These are the roots from 2 different color form Rhynchostylus gigantia species plants. The root coming from the lower left, met the other root coming from the lower right, turned to the left, and paralleled the other root. It grew a short distance in contact with the other root, then stopped growing. To be fair, the other root also stopped growing about the same time where the dia. pinches down.

I just took another look at these roots again, first time in quite a while.
The root has grown under the blocking root and continued merrily on its way, snuggling for a bit with the blocker root before pulling away from it.

I'm thinking that I may have read more into their meeting than actually happened.