Identifying evergreen/deciduous

[idennis]

How do you identify an evergreen or deciduous dendrobium, I purchased a dendrobium from lowes the tag on it just says "dendrobium." I'm trying to find out which one it is because the leaves are turning yellow and if its a deciduous then its fine, if it's an evergreen then im worried that somethings wrong. There are no flowers on it because it has already bloomed, it had a flower spike growing from the top of the cane if that helps. here's a pic of it-
nvm i can't post a pic of it until i have made 5 or more posts lol
Ok i'll try to describe it....
Its growing on a hard cane and has 4 leaves growing from it, the cane is thin at the base and is thick towards the middle and goes back to slim at the top, the leaves are about 4" long and 2" wide. It grows a spike at the top of the cane, so I'm assuming its an evergreen type, so is this yellowing of the one leaf a normal thing or should i be concerned??

[jpyerry]

You have to have at least 5 posts (I think) before you can upload pictures. Just make a few posts and you should be able to upload pictures.

[Reg22]

A picture would really really help. Just post 4 more nonsense posts and show us that dend.
Welcome to the forum.

[idennis]

ok there we go, here's a pic of my dendro

dendro by superidennis, on Flickr

[rcb]

It doesn't look like either a nobile type or a Phal type to me, which are the two most common Den NOIDs.

Do you remember what color the flowers were?

From your pic, it looks like the top leaf is yellowing before the bottom ones, is this correct?

[idennis]

Yeah the top leaf is yellowing first, and no I bought this on Sunday from lowes, blooms had already fallen off so I have no idea what type of flowers it has. This was potted with 2 other plants of the same type and on that one 2 of the leaves are yellowing as well

[Fishmom]

I can't help with the particular type of den, but I have a NOID that has similar-looking canes. Presently it has 3 canes with leaves at the top and a couple more older ones that are leafless. The leaves seemed to drop more readily when it was smaller.

The bark your plant is in seems pretty fresh, but did you repot when you brought it home from Lowe's ? If not, I'd do it just to check the roots and make sure you have some. Then I'd pull the medium back from the base of the plant, as that is where the new growth will appear, either new roots or a lead for a new cane. You don't say how big that pot is, but if it is 4" and the plant does not have much in the way of roots, it probably is over-potted. It will do best if it gets fairly dry between waterings--not bone dry, but not moist all the time, either. Use a bamboo skewer to monitor the moisture levels

For what it is worth, here is mine, which is in semi/hydro since 2009. It does not go leafless in the winter. I assume it is a phal-type Den. There could be any number of reasons for a leaf drop after moving it (changes in conditions, something picked up before you acquired it) but good den culture will go a long ways toward retaining the rest of the leaves. Here is a link to the AOS Culture Sheets: http://www.aos.org/Default.aspx?id=75

[idennis]

thanks for the info fishmom, yeah i repotted it right when i got it home, i like to repot new plants asap so i can check out the root systems. It is in a 4" pot that is inside of a decorative pot, it has a lot of roots, the roots fit perfectly in the pot, i understand dendros like to almost be potbound so the one i chose has its root in there nicely. Yours looks a lot like mine maybe they're the same species. Hopefully when it blooms next year i'll be able to post a picture of the flowers to help with the id process haha. I'll pull some of the medium back from the base to allow new growth. I really appreciate the info, thanks so much!

[kmarch]

The best we'll be able to do, and most importantly, is identify the type of dendrobium. Finding the specific name of the hybrid is unlikely. Nobile types are the ones that loose their leaves and this one doesn't look like a nobile type to me.