Phal Scilleriana Root Keiki

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

This is very new to me!

It probably doesn't really occur in cultivation because most people use potted culture to grow Phals rather than mount them, and most people have not grown a single individual Phal for long enough of a period of time to see it happen.

I'll bet if more people mounted their Phals, they'd keiki like crazy along the roots.

It suddenly makes a lot of sense why in the past in places such as the Philippines that Phal stuartiana was considered a weed plant.

For a plant that grows as slow as most Phals do, it makes no sense to call them weeds. But when they freely keiki from the stems and the roots as well as occasionally keiki from the inflorescence, and add on to the fact that they produce thousands of seeds per pod, then of course they'd pop up everywhere!

Phal roots have meristematic tissue all along the roots in varying places. That's why if a root gets partially damaged, it's not a big deal, they can grow back from that undifferentiated root meristem.

This is also an exemplary reason to never, ever, trim the roots on your Phals!

Throwing out keikis along the roots may not be solely a trait of Phal stuartiana or Phal schilleriana. It could be that all Phals and Doritis can do this to some degree or another.

This is probably one of the reasons why meristem cloning of Phalaenopsis and Doritis roots is possible, idk.

[Zildjian]

another pic

[Zildjian]

It suddenly makes a lot of sense why in the past in places such as the Philippines that Phal stuartiana was considered a weed plant.

These two phal specie is too common in Bohol growing on trees and the weed thing might have been the case. People there don't know the name and the importance of these specie in the phalaenopsis breeding. Our house help who is from Bohol also brought me a matured plant and it looks like from it's natural habitat (trees). She told me that they removed the others and thrown away because they got impatient waiting for it to flower. Maybe it's in shade all day not getting enough light to enduce blooming.

[Zildjian]

i'll visit their place next time and collect some keiki's.

[trdyl]

Very cool thread! I would have never guessed that these would keiki from the roots.

[Zildjian]

And a cool way to propagate these beautiful mottled/variegated leaf phal. i'm slowly mounting mine in woods. i'll be doing a project also in bohol where i have a piece of land with trees...mounting those phals and let it be naturalized and produce keiki's like crazy.