Black ring on cane
 

I recently received this dendrobium unawi mist from a nursery and it has this black ring on the cane. Totally normal or something to worry about?

The plant is Dendrobium Jaquelyn Thomas 'Unami Mist'. There are various clones available of Den. Jaquelyn Thomas with different clonal names between the single quotes. I have read this one originated as a mutation when mericloning another clone.

This is a hybrid between a phalaenopsis group Den and a spatulata group Den. Like both ancestors, it likes to be warm and moist all year. It is a very vigorous grower, gets big, flowers a lot, and is a good beginner orchid if you can keep it warm and moist.

These tall stemmed Dens often develop black marks like that on old canes. It's not worrisome unless it's soft.

The plant looks in mediocre shape to me. I wouldn't order from that nursery again unless the plants were cheap and I were willing to nurse one to better condition. Because this kind of Den is vigorous and easy to grow it should go on to do well. It is recently repotted into fresh bark so you don't need to repot until it outgrows that pot - which it should by the end of this summer.

Thanks for the advice! Glad to hear it's not something nefarious. This is from a nursery with a pretty good reputation so I'd have been surprised if that was the case. In case anyone can tell the nursery from the tag I should also say that the plant was indeed cheap ($7 I believe) and this is the worst looking of several plants in the order, and the picture I took doesn't show the extent of the larger cane which looks very healthy.

If newer canes look good the plant should do fine - the one in the photo is an old one - reserves for the plant but that's it... that cane is probably rootless too, force of nature - once a growth has done its thing, the plant puts its energy into new growth, sucks the resources from old ones.