... what is this?

[bnaz]

This may be a silly question. I don't know anything about plant anatomy/etc (aside from what I'm learning as I go) and I figured I would ask. I was looking closely at my hybrid and I found something on one flower that's not on the others. I looked closely at my other little Phal and none of its flowers have this.

These first two images show the mysterious thing in question. It's a little yellow doodad. I'm assuming it's part of my plant's reproductive system? But why does my other plant not seem to have one?





And here's a flower on the same plant without it.



You can see how much of a newbie to orchids (and plants!) I am. c:

[lambelkip]

that's the pollinia. it's normally covered by the anther cap until the pollinator comes along, but it looks like the anther cap has been knocked off.

[RosieC]

Orchids don't have loose pollen, they instead have pollinia which is a ball of pollen. This is one of the distinguishing features of an orchid compared to other flowers.

As Kip has said it's usually covered by the 'anther cap'. If you look very closely at one of the 'normal' flowers you can just make out a cap which covers two balls of pollen. It has a tiny lip sticking down which get's caught on the pollinator insect and the two pollinia stick to the back of the insect dangling on the stalks you can see in your picture.

It looks in your first two pictures like the anther cap has been knocked off and the pollinia dislodged, but the stalks they are on are still attached to the plant. This has probably happened while you were handling the plant. It's not a problem, although loss of the pollinia can cause the flower to close earlier than it usually would. You may not see that with this one as the pollinia are still there, but if it does close earlier than the other flowers don't be too concerned.

[RosieC]

P.S The first time I saw pollinia they were stuck to the stem of another plant and I was REALLY confused as to what they were. Someone here recognised them when I showed a photo of what I thought might be insect eggs or something