Root life cycle.

[bil]

OK, it's nice to be able to ask questions here without having people saying 'That's a dumb question' etc etc so thanks to all who help out.

It's sometimes very difficult to ask a question clearly unless you already know the answer. That might sound silly, but thrust me, it isn't.

Do orchid roots have a lifecycle? By that, I mean a 'normal plant like a rose pushes out roots, and while they may die off or die back, in general such roots are there for the life of the plant. Plus, of course, cut off all the roots, and the rose is what we gardeners call 'dead'. From the rescue hard cane dens I salvaged on their way to the Great Compost Heap in the Sky, I can see that an orchid with no roots is not a dead plant but will happily throw a whole new set of roots while living off their 'fat'.

Are there orchids whose roots die off each year? Or do a % of an orchid's roots die off each year. Do roots just last a fixed number of years and die off, or, barring accidents and with good treatment, will an orchid retain all its roots as long as it lives?