What is a Terminal Spike?
 

I was looking for more info on You Tube and came across this reference, but my untrained newbie eye can't tell the difference between this type of spike and a regular flower spike. The only thing I saw was that the terminal spike emerged from within the crown foliage instead of from the underside of the plant. Is this right or am I missing something?

And from what I gather it is the last ditch effor for the flower to reproduce before it bites the dust?

Hehehe...and by the way sorry for posting this in the wrong section:blushing: . I meant to post it in the newbie section :biggrin:

A terminal spike is one that grows from the center of the leaves of a monopodial orchid, meaning that the plant will no longer be able to grow leaves from there.
the plant can produce keikis and flowers for a time...but it will eventually expire.

And what prompts the plant to form a terminal spike? or does it just happen radomly?

its in the DNA structure when the weak gene manifests itself so the plant must produce a keiki and flowers to preserve a better healthier self or sometimes the plant would have a near death experience a while back and just manifested now....

Usually it is just a random thing, not an indication of any genetic problem or a weak or damaged plant. No biological developmental process is ever 100% accurate and predictable. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong.

ok, got it! Thanks

A friend who used to breed Phals swore that it couldn't be just random because it always happened to one of his most promising plants, leaving him scrambling to stem propagate it. But I think he was exaggerating ...

Steve

He was only growing Phalaenopsis Murphy I guess…

I bought a NOID phal with a terminal spike in October 2012. I bought it knowing it might be a short-lived plant, but I just liked the flowers (and it's not like a NOID phal from the supermarket is a huge investment anyway). Since then, the plant has never stopped flowering and it has made several keikis on the flowering spikes and also two basal keikis that will ensure that the plant can keep on going with two new sets of crowns.

I'm a newbie and initially thought that terminal spikes meant it would be game over for a plant, but from the look of it, a terminal spike is not necessarily a big deal. There's a pretty good chance the phal will find a way around it and keep going.

I have always understood "terminal" in this case to just mean "final" or "the end of"- the final, or end of growth from the crown, not death. I think we take "terminal" to mean death from hearing about terminal diseases.

Cattleyas, for example, typically have terminal spikes (the spike is the final/end of growth of that particular pbulb)- the difference being that in Cattleyas, being sympodial, unlike Phals (monopodial), it's normal and doesn't affect the ability to continue growing normally.

But, since a Phal with a terminal spike can no longer grow from the crown, basal and spike keikis are likely if the plant is otherwise healthy. BUT - basal keikis may take some time to become bloom size. So, I'm still not happy to see a terminal spike on my Phal :p