Brown but firm roots on phal

[oakrose]

I have a NoID phal that cried out to me for help a month or so ago by growing two new leaves one right after another. I investigated and found some rotted roots, which I removed and repotted in new bark.

I've had a hard time seeing the roots through the clear pot and thought it was just that the roots were buried in the bark medium rather than against the side of the pot. However, I just now investigated and found a few more newly rotted roots, which I've clipped. But what I don't understand is that all of the roots are brown, even though they are quite firm. I couldn't see them because they're the same color as the bark.

I haven't used this particular bark brand before; is it possible the brown of the bark has colored the roots? I can't remember from past pottings whether this plant has always had brown roots or not. Is this something particular to this phal or is something wrong? And if the latter, what do I do about it?

It shed its lower-most leaf around the same time as the above stuff, but I just took that as normal. Now it's starting to lose its next lower-most leaf, which may be normal too, but I'm suspicious because of the other stuff going on. That would leave it with 3 leaves, including the 2 rapid-fire new ones, which is fine as long as it's normal.

Another peculiarity about this phal is that it has speckled leaves--naturally occurring, as far as I can tell because it's been like that the whole 3 years I've had it, growing new speckled leaves from time to time. It's been healthy and happy until recent months. It has pale pink flowers when it blooms each January. Any suggestions as to its identity?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Without a photo, it is difficult to ID your Phal. Although, I have a guess as to what it might be.

Dead roots can still feel firm to the touch at times, the real test is to pull on it. If the velamen comes off, you know for certain it's dead as a doorknob.

The leaves falling off could be from severe root damage, idk. Again, without a photo, it's hard to tell.

Another thing you may not have considered yet was that even though you repotted the Phal into bark, the pot might have been too large for the root mass.

In the future, I'd recommend getting a healthy plant from the get go. It's just a far less stressful venture into the orchid hobby.