| Myth #1 - How to tell the age of an orchid
The myth: You can tell the age of a phalaenopsis by counting the leaves.
This myth says you can tell the age of a phalaenopsis by counting the leaves since a phal grows only one leaf per year.
There are 2 problems with this myth:
1) With good culture phals can put out more than one leaf per year, and
2) Phal leaves are not persistent. Old leaves die and fall off.
This myth seems to come from the understanding that some orchids produce only one growth per year. A few actually do. Most others do not. While some sympodial orchids do take one year go through an entire sprout-grow-mature-flower-rest cycle, one plant can have several leads each of which produce a growth. My Coelogyne flaccida is one such plant. It does take a full year for it to go through the full cycle spelled out above, but it also has 7 leads on it so this year, eventhough it is in a relatively small pot, it produced 7 new growths. One could not accurately gauge the age of my plant by counting the growth.
As many of you know with phals, there is a great deal of variety and growth habit among the species and so the way a hybrid produces depends heavily on the parentage. Some seem to hold their leaves for a very long time while others consistently shed leaves, never having more than 5-6 leaves even on a very healthy, mature plant.
Conclusion: Myth Busted
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If you'd like to comment on this myth or if you have an orchid myth you'd like me to examine, please PM me through the forum.
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