"New Growth" on Potinara Free Spirit 'Eric'
 

I have not seen a new growth look so odd...is it a mutant? It is basically double the size and width of its maturing neighbor (photo #2). It also doesn't have the symmetrical growth pattern of the future leaves in a thin column. It looks like two bulbs packed into one...

Two of the pictures are of the "new growth" and the other picture is a different maturing bulb on the same plant (which looks like a typical immature growth).

A flower spike?

It looks like 2 buds to me. I know walkeriana's bloom like that from a separate growth that is just a spike mostly. But your hybrid doesn't have walkeriana in it. Maybe some other species do this as well. It sure looks like buds in the last shot.

Well, it does say 'Free Spirit.'

PaphLover
A flower spike?

silken
It looks like 2 buds to me. I know walkeriana's bloom like that from a separate growth that is just a spike mostly. But your hybrid doesn't have walkeriana in it. Maybe some other species do this as well. It sure looks like buds in the last shot.

Thanks for the reply - I didn't even think about it being a flower spike...I shall watch it and post later what it develops into - I just wanted to make sure I was not Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors and that this orchid was not going to be "Audrey II.5"...I also attached a better picture looking at that 'thing' from above.

estación seca
Well, it does say 'Free Spirit.'

Lol!

Maybe make that 3 buds!!!

Keep us posted - I am really curious to see how it turns out!

Like Silken, I thought "Like a C. walkeriana??" but she has ruled that out as an ancestor. Orchids sometimes do odd things, and you sometimes see growths or flowers that must be throwbacks to their ancestry (prehistory rather than history). Maybe this is the orchid equivalent of a vestigial tail??

I have a hybrid that has 38% walkeriana in it and it still has bloomed like that once. Whereas it blooms normally other times. On this Free Spirit there is some 'unknown' content to its heritage so maybe it still has some walkeriana in it way back.

And yes, occasionally they just do weird things!

Very odd. I too can't wait to see what it does.