MY PHALAENOPSIS MUTATED!!
 

I was checkin out my purple phal that I though was a verbid when I noticed that one was "odd". After a while of an off feeling I began to study it and finally noticed that one of my blooms had partially fused at the bottom sepals, then on another I noticed that they had COMPLETELY fused!! It looks like an angel... :)

Then I noticed that both are COMPLETELY (again..hehe) devoid of lips!!!!! They have the column and all, but no lips!

If I am correct, doesn't this essentially defy the definition of an orchid? ...save for the seeds... :p

Should I try to preserve these abominations? If so, how? I'm thinkin' Hairspray, so that they can retain their 3-d impact. Any ideas?

This orchid is doing better than it has for YEARS, if not ever before. When I first saw it it only got 3 blooms total, now it has three branches on it's spike. I'm soo happy! : )))) It now has four open and over 20 buds!

...I accidentally knocked it over when taking pics... I caught it tho, so hopefully it'll be okay, but I'm still mad it happened...

I'll try to get pics on here asap, maybe later tonight even. Lets hope! :)

Thanks for readin
Jake/Smid


The First pic is my fav Mutant: Completely lacks a lip and is fused at the sepals
The Second is UnMutated
The Third Just lacks the lip and is slightly fused

Yes, please share! That sounds pretty interesting!

ooohhh, post pictures!!

Do you use rooting hormones?

I think thats from in-breeding, hahaha!! kidding, so lets see>

No hormones, just a dash of Peter's Orchid food in the water when I spray the roots most of the time.

Here's my Photobucket link. I only have these photos on there cuz I made the account just for this, so it should be easy to find

Pictures by Smidthmador - Photobucket

Enjoy ;)

Oh goody pictures! I was about to say, "picture or it didn't happen!" ;)

I saw a P. amabilis in a store a while ago that had one bloom fused like the first one you posted.
From what I hear, it's not the strangest thing in the world. Super nifty though! It has a nose!

Hehehe

I don't think that it's the fusing that is as odd as the complete lack of a very important sexual structure. If we would liken this to humans, would it be circumcised? lol
Wouldn't it be odd if someone was born that way?

If I wanna make it sound lame, they just look like impatiens.. brunfelsia sounds cooler tho :)

Do you think that if I pollinated these they might keep a portion of the trait?

What do you think that the chances are that this is a localized genetic mutation and not just some hormonal imbalance?

You can do this to morning glories. Can you do it to orchids? (I may be wrong on some very large technicalities here... flowers aren't leaves and the structures of the plants are significantly different..)