Introducing Me

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board

It might not be a keiki at the base. These orchids always produce new growths at the base as part of their normal growing cycle.

Dendrobium Phal is not to be confused with the genus we also abbreviate Phal. Phalaenopsis is a genus of Orchids, just like Dendrobium and the two have quite different care and growth pattern. Orchids in the Phalaenopsis genus usually only have one growing point (they are monopodial) and another growth from the base is a basil keiki. However the Dendrobium genus has many growing points which each terminate annually and new ones start (they are sympodial). Another growth from the base is usually just a normal part of their growth pattern and they shouldn't be separated.

People often get confused by Den Phal and think it's a cross between a Phal and a Den. The confusion originates when a species of Dendrobium was named phalaenopsis (with a small p as all species names are lower case). This species has since been renamed bigibbum but the sub-group of Dendrobium that it was part of is still called Phalanthe, so the name Den Phal for all species and hybrids in this group has stuck.