Odd flowers on phal

[Aurical]

Hello everyone -
Recently my boyfriend's mother bought my a new phal. It looks fairly healthy. It has two spikes with blooms and large healthy looking green leaves. Upon closer inspection, however, I noticed that on all of the blooms, one petal not fully extended. At first I thought that the blooms had just recently opened and that these petals would move outward like the others, but they look the same as they did when I got the plant. The petals that remain curved towards the center look smaller and less mature than the other petals.

I have two other phals that are pretty healthy had have bloomed a few times in the couple months that I've had them, but both have had perfect flowers. I was wondering if anyone else had seen something like this? Is it some sort of genetic defect in the plant, or is it missing some sort of nutrient? I know I probably didn't describe it well, but I will post a pic as soon as I figure out how to do it.

thanks!

[Vivienne]

Hi Aurical

I just purchased an 'odd' Phal myself and have since learned a great deal. The condition is called Peloric. Perhaps this is the same as your Phal.

You can read about it and see a picture at the link below (bargain medicine thread).
http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/gen...-medicine.html

[Aurical]

Whoops - realized how to do it as I was posting the last message. Here's a pic of one of the flowers.

[prisana]

Hi Aurical, it's probably a random defect, effecting only some of the flowers and only occationally. I have a white phal that had mites ( they say mites only effect leaves, but these damaged my flowers also ) So it could be insects, or it was bruised when it was still young therefore it couldn't open normally. I hope it's the latter..since there's nothing to worry about there.

[kmarch]

Aurical, thanks for the pic, it helps. Your Phal is not a peloric Phal but for whatever reason (there can be many) it simply hasn't fully opened. It's nothing to worry about. Next time your orchidblooms it will probably be normal.

Happy Growing!