Quote:
Originally Posted by DeanneD
Nat, how on earth did you take a guess at what it might be based on just the canes!? I believe you, I just don't have the experience to be able to tell one den from another yet. What kind of things do you look at?
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Hmmm...tough one for me to answer.
Both my parents are botanists and though I'm pretty good at visual ID of plants I'm not much practiced with systematic anatomical description...
I think the biggest visual clue for me is that the 'canes' (pseudobulbs) of plants in sections Phalaenanthe and Spatulata have an evenly tapering shape, sort of like a hand-rolled cigar (or a joint!
). Section Eudendrobium plants ('nobile-type,' though some nobile hybrids also involve plants from other sections) are often thinner at the base and tip but with less of an even taper to the cane (with some exceptions). They sometimes have swollen nodes, too, giving canes a 'knobby' look. I feel like there's also a visual difference to the leaf bracts sheathing old canes, maybe Phalaenanthes have more layers of bracts than Eudendrobiums?
Of course, another good clue is that all the plants I've recently seen sold in big pieces of coconut husk like yours are Den-phal types. In fact most Dendrobiums sold at grocery and big-box stores (and thus likely to be 'rescues') are Den-phals, so even if I just guessed I'd have a pretty good chance of being right.
I've got a few strongly deciduous species in section Eudendrobium, I'll try to get some good pictures of their pseudobulbs and post them so you can see the difference. It might take me a little while though, this is a crazy week at my work and I'm somewhat dysfunctional at getting pictures to show up on OB.
Good question, sorry I don't (yet) have a good answer! Any plant anatomists lurking out there who can enlighten us?
--Nat
I also have a NOID dendrobium like this one (has a few leaves, but not many) and it's potted in the same material. I can see that the roots are plump and they look healthy; however, I have no idea how to repot it when the time comes. RosieC advised to leave it be and place it in a pot with bark surrounding it. When it's time to pot up (which might be a while!) to a 4" pot, should I follow this advice or make an attempt at removing the plant from the coconut and potting it in fir bark? I thought about soaking it to loosen the coconut, but it is so embedded that I worry about damaging the roots.
Hybrid Mode
