Just curious about keikis....

[PeaceLoveOrchids]

Hi orchid board!
Just curious if keikis grow in the wild. I mean, there aren't people to cut them off. Do the roots just grow untill they reach the ground and stay on the mom? Does the stem attached eventually die? But then the new plant would fall to the ground right? Just wondering.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Some keikis will eventually grow onto whatever the mother plant grows on if they are able to gain access to it.

[PeaceLoveOrchids]

Oh, thanks for the reply. I got to thinking about that yesterday, I was going to look on google. However, I honestly don't trust google anymore because, especially on the subject of orchids, it's vague and has conflicting views on the simplest of answers.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Hmm...

Yeah, if I had a question about orchids, I'm not jumping onto those Google question forums first. I've read a few of those regarding various subjects (non-orchid related), and the answers are a mixed bag of good to outright horrible.

You've come to the right place to have even the most seemingly trivial questions answered about orchids.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Just in case you were wondering...

Yes, not all keikis survive to adulthood in the wild. Some do, some don't.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I re-read your original post...

I'll go just a bit further with answering your question.

Different orchids will have different methods of dispersing their keikis.

Some species such as Thunia or Neobenthamia will have the older canes with the keikis lean down towards the rocks they grow on due to the increasing weight of the growing keikis, so that when the keikis root, they have a chance to root onto the rocks. The keikis also tend to grow up the vertical length of the canes for the reason that if that cane is resting against the side of a rock, all the keikis have to do is just grow. The roots will eventually attach onto the nearby rocks.

Other species such as Den peguanum will have their keikis hang onto the older pseudobulb until the young keiki matures and the old pseudobulb dies. The old pseudobulb acts as the mount until it disintegrates. But by then, some of the keikis will have taken hold of the tree trunk or branch the mother plant was growing on.

Others like Phaius and Calanthe will make keikis, and when the older pseudobulb dies back, the keikis fall to the ground until they re-establish themselves if they haven't been eaten by that time.

Pleiones have a similiar strategy to Phaius and Calanthe in making sure their bulbils reach the desired growing medium.

As you can see, different orchids have different strategies to establish their keikis.

[prc11]

I heard that Phals do this in hope to have the keiki to grab on to the branches above them. If not, the spike would probably eventually weaken due to the keiki weight and fall onto the branch the mother plant is on.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Some Phals also keiki along the roots. It's the fastest way for the Phal keiki to establish itself. The mother's roots are already on the substrate. If they produce keikis on the roots, all the keiki has to do is grow roots over mama's roots, so that when mom's roots die back, it's all set.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Disas from the section Disa (D. aurata, D. cardinalis, D. caulescens, D. tripetaloides, D. uniflora) create little offshoots directly underneath the mother plant. When the mother plant dies, the little offshoots are ready to go.

Another way they reproduce asexually is through the creation of daughter tubers along stolons. The stolons do not grow very far from the mother plant. When the mother plant dies, and the daughter tuber is in good health, it's ready to take off.