Orchid ? variety

[bdp]

Season's Greeting to all,

I have what I believe is some type of terrestrial orchid my son picked up at a local nursery...and its not happy in the house.  It may be for the outside but with snow on the ground I will have to keep it alive til spring...Monocot leaves, clumping habit and new "buds" arise at the base of existing stems.  Excuse the poor photos...not much left to take photos of.  Any thoughts appreciated.

Brian
New Brunswick,
Canada

[mark smyth]

Can you show a photo of the whole plant?

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Brian,
 not much to go on here! A pic of the "bulbs" would help.......

[mark smyth]

"Expanding a bit more background...my son brought this home a few months ago without a label (he worked at a local nursery).  It is/was planted in a peaty/wood mulch mix with slow release fertilizer....I thought it might be a Bletilla? but did not find anything that looks like it on a quick web search..(I am looking at leaves only as it has never flowered)...unfortunately it has just be fading since being brought in
and the photo you saw is about all that is left of the green leaves...the fiborous roots appear to still have some life left in them (second photo attached) with green bud?/new stems as offsets? to main stem.  The roots are not hard, very small 1/8th inch dia. easily, and seem fairly vigorous.....no real bulb to the plant...it appears to just set an offset and the leaves elongate from that....if you can guess that it might be a bletilla var. then I will proceed in that direction and see if I can rejuvenate it for the spring Brian"

It could be a Bletilla and if it is it should be outside going dormant until the spring

[Maggi Young]

Yes, it MIGHT be a bletilla.... and here in Aberdeen I'd be keeping it inside on a windowsill for the winter.  I know folks do grow these outside, but I'd think that it wouldn't be hardy with me.... or in New Brunswick!

[Lesley Cox]

My (small, new) Bletilla is in flower now and I don't honestly think the one above IS a Bletilla. The leaf arrangement is different somehow, each leaf enclosing the stem before it opens out. I'll try to get a picture. It's very cold out and I'm reluctant...

[Paul T]

Bletilla have stonking great bulbous rhizomes too, not fibrous roots like that.  Or at least B. striata does anyway.... the only Bletilla species I've ever managed to get here in Aus.

[mark smyth]

Could it be a dying Cymbidium?

[Maggi Young]

I don't think it can be a cymbidium.... there would surely be more of a bulb, even from a wee plant.  There isn't a chance it could be a gladiolus or something like that, is there???

[Paul T]

Mark,

I think the leaf arrangement is wrong for a Cymbid?  There are non-bulbous Cymbidium (some Australian species at least) but I also think that the ribbing on the leaves isn't right for a Cymbid either.  The leaf almost looks like a young palm, but the growing habit doesn't fit.

How about a Calanthe?  The ribbed leave fits, and I can't remember what the underground bits of Calanthe look like, although I think there may be rhizomes?

There is also another orchid that has sprays of pink flowers, japanese origins I think (but could very well be wrong on that).  The leaf arrangement is spot on for those that I saw in a nursery a couple of years ago.  I have no idea what they're like below ground though, and you think I can remember the name of it?  Something like Spathoglottis perhaps?

There's a couple of ideas to investigate anyway.

[Darren]

I'm thinking Calanthe too.

Some of the Chinese cymbidiums (and the Japanese C goeringii ) are both fairly hardy and have no discernible pseudobulb too. But as Paul says the leaves are definitely wrong.

As Paul also says - Bletilla have big white rhizomes (all the species I think). They are also usually deciduous whereas Calanthe tend toward being evergreen if protected.