Is this an orchid?

[DanW]

Hi everyone,

I found this plant after a tenant moved out. It was thrown away and was not in any pot. I decided to try and grow it. I kept it in potting soil for about a year. It seemed OK but did not really grow much. After my wife brought home some sad looking orchids I started reading about how to take care of them. I am now thinking my found plant is actually an orchid. I repotted it in some medium bark and have been using the MSU fertilizer. It has not done much in the last few months since repotting. Just a week ago the leaves on one of the pseudobulbs turned yellow and fell off. Now the second to last pseudobulb with leaves has the leaves rapidly turning yellow. Shining a light down at the base I see a couple of very green roots starting to grow. Also at least one of the roots has a new green bit emerging from about halfway down the root.

Is this plant even an orchid? When I repotted it I was thinking it could be a Zygopetalum. Anyway, if anyone can offer a guess as to what type of orchid this is I would really appreciate it. I just trying to figure out what this plant needs.

Thanks,
Dan

[RandomGemini]

It does look like it could be, yes. If so, it is very young. These plants can get quite tall. Search the forum for the genus and read through some of the threads on them for care. It's not too difficult though.

[Ray]

One thing for sure...it needs water!

[snowflake311]

looks like a kind of Zygo. how cool.

[silken]

My first thought was maybe a zygopetalum. They don't like to dry out too much so maybe moving it to bark is keeping it too dry. If that is the case you could water it more often.

[DanW]

Thanks for all the help! I just gave it some water. The Phalaenopsis my wife brought home all had extensive root rot from old moss media and over watering. I guess I was worried about over watering the Zygo and should pay more attention to the "don't let it dry out" bit.

Glad to hear everyone agrees with the Zygo identification. I was not sure because the pseudobulbs look shorter and rounder than the pictures I have seen of Zygo foliage.

When it warms up again in the spring I will put it back outside in some dappled shade.

This little sucker is a trouper. When I found it, it had been laying un-potted outside under some redwoods for at least two weeks. Then it spent a full year outside in potting soil and survived light frost to 100 degree full sun. It was definitely getting too much light in the summer. It was a really pale yellow green with some burn spots on the older leaves.

Hopefully it pulls through its new leaf dropping phase and the new growths take off.

Thanks again,
Dan

[snowflake311]

I love zygos It looks like the one I got at trader joes. Mine is compact for a zygo but does not smell.

Here is mine. It has small round pseudobulbs and I love it again this plant.

The flower

[DanW]

Sweet! Cool looking blooms. Hopefully mine survives and turns out to be similar. I can't really see the pseudobulbs in the picture, but I will take your word for it. Mine looks a lot lighter green than yours. I will definitely pay more attention to light and water this year.

[snowflake311]

[QUOTE=DanW;723490]Sweet! Cool looking blooms. Hopefully mine survives and turns out to be similar. I can't really see the pseudobulbs in the picture, but I will take your word for it. Mine looks a lot lighter green than yours. I will definitely pay more attention to light and water this year.[/

The leaf color is due to light. Yours was getting more light then mine. Only time will tell for sure what it is.