Angraecum magdalenae
 

Does anyone have much experience with these?

Mine looks great, nice green foliage without a blemish on it, currently growing a new leaf. However, it also seems to be pushing out a basal keiki. Is this normal? I wasn't aware that these branched...at least not until very mature, and at 6" I don't even think mine is bloom sized yet. Is this a sign of a problem?

I bought it in February and immediately moved it from rotting bark into semi-hydro. It has quickly filled the pot with roots and is now putting out it's second leaf this year. It is growing in a south-west window with unobstructed light, getting direct sun for 3-4 hours a day, and very bright indirect light for most of the rest of the day.

Tyler

I don't have experience with this species. However, Robert Bedard, a respected orchid grower who I have visited the greenhouse of has a beautiful specimen of Angraecum magdalenae that has multiple growths. Seeing this I wouldn't worry too much.

Wow! That's a great picture. Hopefully mine will look like that some day :)

Guess I'll try not to worry about the plant too much then.

Thanks for the reply.

Tyler

Tyler, it's quite normal for magdalenae to produce basal growths. I have several plants in various sizes, and even the smaller seedlings are prone to making small colonies. Yours sounds like it should be approaching flowering size. This species can flower on fairly small plants and doesn't have to get huge in order to be considered blooming size (and even the larger adults I've seen have still been relatively small-growing and compact plants, especially compared with some of the larger members of the genus like sesquipedale and eburneum). They do appreciate fairly high light levels, so what you described should suit it just fine. In the winter you can give it even more light, and full winter sunlight won't hurt it. It will also appreciate cooler night temperatures in the winter if you can provide them (mine easily handle nighttime lows in the low to mid 40s F without showing any sign of stress--in fact, higher temperatures in general seem, in my experience, to be what stress this species out the most). Congratulations on the new leaf and root growth you've gotten from your plant. Although magdalenae's pretty slow glowing, it's an easy grower that's flowers have, in my opinion, one of the best scents of all orchids. You can also find a cultural sheet for this at Orchid Culture - Charles and Margaret Baker. Good luck.

Steve

Like Steve, mine has several basil growths, one of which is nearly as tall as the original growth.

Thanks for the replies.

Any idea what induces the basal growths? It doesn't seem to be age as my plant is still quite young. Could it be time of the year, or root confinement maybe? Feeding/watering habits? Light levels?

No idea. Perhaps it's simply in this species' nature to produce them.

Agreed...from all the reading I've done since starting this thread, it does appear to be in the nature of this plant. Still, for any kind of growth to occur there needs to be some sort of stimuli to encourage it. Something changed in either the composition of the plant or its surroundings to encourage basal growth instead of just continuing the way it was going. If any undifferentiated node on a plant has the potential to be any type of growth then something external pushes it in one direction over another, whether it be root, spike or a new lead. Not sure if that make sense....

Maybe. Maple trees rarely basil sprout. Viburnum and forsythia do it quite freely. Crabapple and vine maple and most polars do as well. Certain plants (species within a common genus) have a predisposition to basil sprouting. It's genetic. Perhaps if most Angraecum magdalenae were single growth and you had an uncommon condition then your analysis might be valid. But this species freely basil sprouts as part of its genetic makeup.

I think maybe I didn't explain my point well enough.

Everything a plant does can in the end be attibuted to its genetic makeup wether it be a common regular occurance or something that only happens under extreme stress. Den nobile drops all it's leaves in the fall and goes dormant until spring. Ang magdalenae readily produces basal growths. The behaviour of the Den nobile is triggered by the shortening days and changing weather patterns that signal a change in seasons, so even though this behaviour is a genetic trait of the plant it still requires external stimuli to bring it about; if the days don't get shorter and the weather doesn't dry up the plant won't go dormant. Similarily, there must be some kind of stimulus that causes the magdalenae to produce basal growths. In a Phal, this would be caused by the cessation of growth from the crown (ie: crown rot), but this is clearly not the case here.

Tyler