Completely different color

[cb977]

I'm starting to think all those years I spent being a bad girl are coming back to haunt me! Very strange!

[psyc1210]

Originally Posted by peterlin

Both pictures look like mericlone plants to me.
My theory is that two plants were potted together. Imagine that one plant is dying (i.e. crown rot - down to one or no leaf) and the producer potted it with another healthy plant with no flower.
Over time the first plant (flower/spike) died back. That leaves no trace of it - and now the other plant is flowering.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Peter, I am really new to this and am not sure what mericlone means...can you explain that to me?

And you were right about it being planted together with another. I took moss off the top and took it apart a little, and it broke into two halves, one half of the healthy but not as pretty as I wanted new flower plant...and the other half a dead plant that contained the remnants of the old spike from last flowering...and I could see the crown, and some decayed leaves were buried with it.

Very upsetting.

[cb977]

Here ya go:

Mericlone-
A plant derived from Tissue Culture that is identical to its parent.

We've got a wonderful glossary here at OB. It's come in handy a number of times for me

Don't be upset...stuff like that is going to happen. It's part of the learning process.

[psyc1210]

Originally Posted by cb977

Here ya go:

Mericlone-
A plant derived from Tissue Culture that is identical to its parent.

We've got a wonderful glossary here at OB. It's come in handy a number of times for me

Don't be upset...stuff like that is going to happen. It's part of the learning process.

How can you tell that it looks like a mericlone though, what makes that obvious by just looking at it?

[quiltergal]

It's not obvious by just looking at a plant. However, most of the plants grown by large commercial greenhouses are created by some sort of tissue probagation. Small specialty greenhouses sell mericlones also but they also sell their own seedling crosses, as well as species plants.

[peterlin]

I suggested more than one plant potted together because genetically it does not seem possible for a plant to change color and appearance from one year to next. This is different than cloned mutation case like Phal. Golden Peoker 'Cat's Paw Magician' JC/AOS where it was award judge's commendation for "unusual phenomenon of two totally and exquisitely distinct sets of flowers on separate inflorescences on the same plant; both inflorescences reflect flowers with the familiar Golden Peoker patterns but are so drastically different as to appear to betwo separate plants; one inflorescence mirrors the flowers of the 'Everspring' clone and one mimics the 'BL' clone, both blooming on the same plant; plant is from a seedling population, not a clone or meristem." Note the wording that it's the same hybrid - flower but different pattern/color pigment.

I said the flowers are clones because I have seen these flowers before. Cloned plants are popular - favor by large producer for their selected flower quality and uniform growth. When I visited International Orchd show - it is common to see hundreds of the same clone grouped together to create that special effect - sea of phalaenopsis flower. This is another reason that I suspect two plants were planted together. It's a common practice - grower new to orchids does not detect that the pot has more than one plant, instead the buyer sees a plant with 2 spikes. In our trade, small seedling with 1 spike/few flower doesn't sell. But if you group 2 together to create 2 spikes, then the plant will sell. Again - this is why cloned plants are in fashion.

In this case - it was an error that two different hybrid were planted together. So I suspect that one plant was not healthy, so another healthy one was put together to give you foliage and flower. Phalaenopsis are commonly planted in moss in flexible pot - so they can be easily removed from plastic pot and put together in a new pot for grouping purpose.

[Gin]

Welcome to the forum Peter , have you gone to the introduction part ? Your info. is very much appreciated . Gin