Paph. micranthum growths

[Piper]

I recently purchased a "2-3 growth Paph. micranthum division," which is healthy and happy, although when it came, I was intrigued. It had two growths side by side, which is how I'm used to seeing Paphs grow. And there was third growth set across the pot. Weird - how did it get over there, if it was part of the 'mother' plant?

I did some repotting of recent acquisitions today (NOTE - Jason's not kidding!!! Be careful repotting Paphs - especially seedlings! They don't have many roots, theirs are fragile, and they don't need clods like *me* breaking them!) and grabbed the micranthum as my last victim.

I haven't seen root/division growth like this before, so I wanted to share it. This could be standard operating procedure for some Paphs, but it was new to me.

The 'independent' growth was actually growing off what looked to be a runner that descended from the the crown of the main plant. It certainly wasn't a fat, hairy root. It was more like an underground stem. And it came up away from mom and then did it's thing. A whole new growth.

So, is this a micranthum thing, a Parvi thing, a Paph thing, or what? And does it become an independent bloomer? That is, as these growths mature, can I expect blooms from the mother and the independent kid?

Julie

[Diane]

Nice, fat roots!!

[bench72]

Wow, that's a healthy lookin baby!

I have heard of the term "stoloniferous growth" applied to the parvisepalum section of the genus Paphiopedilums... I guess this is what they mean.

I'll leave it to the rest to tell you about the growing and flowering side of things, because i thought these plants did nothing but sit on their fat pots

[Piper]

Good on ya, Tim!

Stolons, are effectively runners. I found this in a Canadian Orchid Congress article on Parvis, but the article said not to reprint it, so I'll just excerpt the relavent part:

"The small plants of the species in subgenus Parvisepalum are usually characterized by tessellated foliage, and stoloniferous offshoots which emerge from the base of the crown. In nature, plants typically grow on the top or sides of limestone buttresses with rivulets running nearby. The stolons play a part in species distribution by breaking off the mother plant and being carried downstream to new locations."

Quite cool!

Julie

[Hoa Tony Nguyen]

Very interesting info! Thanks!
Actually I have seen micranthum did this. I saw a large clumps of micranthum then there was a new growth peeking out from the bottom of the pot through one of those draining holes! How peculiar! So this is what that is! It is fun to know about these things!
Cheers. Hoa.

[paphman910]

Nice miranthum photo and roots. Paph armeniacum does the same thing and I once had a new growth popping out of the drainage hole. New growths generally have very few roots at all. Don't be in a hurry to divide them because the new growth still depend on the mother plant.

You should pot it in a mesh pot that is hanged in the greenhouse

Paphman910

[Gilda]

You should pot it in a mesh pot that is hanged in the greenhouse

Paphman910

Paphman is right. I have read that if a stolen gets trapped the whole plant can die ! Yikes !

[paphman910]

If you potted it in a pot I would suggest a bulb pot which is about 8 inches in diameter and about 4 inches high. You would need to repot the plant yearly to see if the stolon are heading toward the drainage in the bottom of the pot. Did you know that Mexipedilum xerophyticum puts out stolons but it never goes underground like miranthum or armeniacum.

Paphman910

[Piper]

Interesting - I didn't know that about mexipedilum!

Julie

[Gin]

Interesting information , I learned something new . Gin