Help! Is this a keiki? Phalaenopsis with one basal keiki, now growing strange leaves

[Dollythehun]

The terminal spike can bloom. And I think my mother plant also bloomed after I detached the terminal growth. Then she grew another. This is one of my first orchids. She has to be 10-15 years old. I still remember the night I bought her.

[OrchidBro]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

I'm not so sure OrchidBro. I have a phal that has done this same thing twice. The keiki was coming from the crown. It grew fast with lots of roots. I detached it and potted it up. The mother also had great roots so I repotted her also. Drat, if she hasn't done the same thing again! While I understand Roberta's wanting to leave it, I don't want a huge multi stemmed plant, so I'll remove it again when it grows roots. My question is why is it doing this? And twice? I'll post a picture in a minute.

Yes, I retract my first comment. I was looking at photos 3 and 4 and from those photos it looked like the new leaves were coming from the crown. Once Veska mentioned a flower spike was coming from the crown I looked at photo 1 more closely and saw the terminal spike on the main plant.

[aliceinwl]

Some plants seem to just randomly develop terminal spikes but some varieties also seem to be genetically predisposed to produce them. I did some reading on Phalaenopsis ‘Timothy Christopher’ (I think that’s the right name) after a store near me got a bunch of these in and almost all had terminal spikes. Apparently, this variety is known for producing them.