Strange Beautiful "web-footed" Phal blooms

[Rivka]

So i got three "mini" phals last month to make a small potted display with, they are all really cute. a cheep fun project!

one of the plants i got mostly because the blooms seemed like little mutants! or more specifically it the the stems of the blooms where they are supposed to come off their inflorescence.
it seems to me that it is web-footed and for all but a few flowers it was unable to properly disconnect with the main stalk. this resulted in the flowers massing up together and i think the stalk staying bound up and shorter than it might, the flowers are also not all properly orientated as lots of them were stopped from flipping over to be upright. the "bouquet is lovely and the plant seems really healthy in every other way.

i wonder what happened to this plant and if it is genetic and will do this next time it blooms or if it was environmental and this is a one time show? has anyone seen this on their plants or elsewhere?

anyway i think it is fun and wanted to share. in each of the first two pictures you can see both ones that broke away and grow pretty normal and others that are connected web-foot style and glow parallel to the main stalk till the last moment


p.s. the pot is a apothecary jar i got at a craft store and carefully drilled to so S/H in, it has three mini phals in it and they seem to be loving it. two are still blooming strong, one that was farther along finished early and now is growing like a tiny happy weed.

p.s.s. oh and that is my 15 year old kitten, he is very sweet to my 'chids (he only eats spider plants!) i actually caught him lovingly cleaning a sickly phal that i had moved away from my other orchids, it recovered really well so maybe it just needed some kitty love!

[PhalNewbie89]

That is interesting. It might be something genetic and you will continue to get little bouquets :P

[lmartiny]

I'm not sure, but it will be interesting to see what it does when it blooms again. I like your window picture with the kitty.

[kmarch]

From what I can tell from the pictures, the flowers have all of their flower parts. The ovary looks a little thicker than usual but not deformed or anything. I suspect the plant was moved around as the inflorescence was forming or the buds were orienting and they've not had time to position themselves before opening. I expect it will have better flower orientation on he next flowering provided it's not moved around while the buds are orienting.

[Rivka]

yeah this is not a case of the buds just not turning around to the light while forming(certainly had that with orchid that i have bought right before they bloomed)
,most of them are attached for most of the length of the "ovary", in one case i can see the webbing goes all the way up and onto a sepal. when you see what looks thicker is just the webfoot i am talking a bout, there seems to be a translucent webbing joining the ovary and the inflorescence. if viewed from the side away from the inflorescence where you cant see the connection they look perfectly normal and you are right the flowers seem correct and healthy in every other way.

and i guess time will tell if it is nature or nurture, it will be very excited to see the rebloom on this one!

[orchidlover55]

I like the picture of the kitty kat with the orchid looking out the window, that is so cute

[Rivka]

that would be my other kid as apposed to 'chid
American Shorthair silver classic tabby 'Mazarri'

[Stelios]

webfooted or not i still like it. I too believe that it became like this because of change in its position in regards of light and not from genetics.

[patticake]

The connecting tissue is odd. We'll have to wait and see, wont we?

[dounoharm]

that picture of your kitty and the orchids is a real keeper....print that one out and frame it, lol.....very nice arrangement

[davetheorchidaddict]

That cat picture should be entered into a contest of some sort because it is quite beautiful. As for the plant the only way that I can see to determine what it is would be to look at the next spikes to see how they come out. If it comes out the same as this it would be a genetic thing if not it is one of those anomaly that may never occur again.

[Rivka]

The kitty picture was entered in this months photo contest. Thanks I love it too! I was just wanting to take a picture of the chid, but my kittle likes to be the center on all the action so decided that he needed to squeeze up the too