Curly tufts on Pleiones

[kaygri]

Hi, does anyone know what these strange curly tufts are on my Pleiones? I've looked on the web but can't seem to find anything about them.

[mark smyth]

great photos! It almost looks like seeds have sprouted but I would expect their seeds to be like dust

[kaygri]

Strange arn't they? I dead headed the flowers once they had gone over. These seem to come from stalks next to the pseudobulbs, I've seen them a few times before, never found out what they were. They always happen at this stage of growth and just go brown eventually..

[Carlo]

Have you unpotted while they are present to see if there's a bulb or not? Or whether they are somehow connected to the pleiones?

[Lesley Cox]

Could be quite wrong of course but I think they are the "whiskers" that grow on the tops of psuedobulbs, but fasciated, so that there are many, instead of just 1-3. If so, fasciation could be why they don't develop further but just brown off.

Puts a bad hair day in perspective.

[kaygri]

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll pull some of the moss aside tomorrow and poke around a bit, see what is going on below them.. These tufts don't seem to happen that often, so I'll try and get some more pics

[Martin Baxendale]

Difficult to say from photos, but those tufts on top of the pleiones look a bit like they could be aerial roots. Why not try wrapping some moist moss around them and wrapping it in plastic cling-film, to see if they stay alive and develop more. It's a long shot, but if they were aerial roots you might just get a load of little pseudobulbils developing on them. Then again I'm not great pleione expert so am probably completely wrong.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Hi Kaygri,
They seem to be devellopping on top of last year's old, shrivelled pseudobulb.  You often get some small bulbils devellopping there (1-2 or 3 max) - I've never seen bunches like that... but they do look like aerial roots

Lesley, what do you mean by "fasciated" ?

[Andrew]

Kaygri, you are not alone (where have I heard that before ?).

I've just taken a picture of mine :-



As Luc says above, they are on the old pseudobulb. This is the first time it has happened here.

'Fasciated' is when a normal round stem grows flattened and abnormal.

[mark smyth]

like this Argyranthemum

[kaygri]

Hi, I had a dig around today and dug one of the tufty pseudobulbs up.. I noticed on another potful of  Pleiones - 'Shantung Ridgeway' that there were two mini bulbils on top of the old pseudobulbs. Very interesting.. Looks like mystery solved, fasciated bulbils! Thanks for all your help 

[Lesley Cox]

As above Luc, a flattened, abnormal stem which often has more or many more flowers on top. I'm sure you will have seen lilies like that. Sometimes a hundred or more flowers, all bunched and tight where there should only be 6 or 8 maybe. Really hideous. With lilies (and perhaps with these pleiones) it's often a seasonal thing. Might happen for a year or two then not again.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Kaye,
The growths on top of your Pleiones are a mass of very small baby pseudobulbs (and we usually just call them bulbils). Most Pleiones produce a few bulbils every year from the top of the old pseudobulb. These can be detached in autumn and potted up at the same time as the adults as a great way to propagate your plants. The bulbils take 2 to 4 years to reach adult size depending on how big they were to start. The difference with your particular plants is that instead of a few small bulbils they have produced a mass of really tiny bulbils - but if you look closely you will still see that at the bottom of each tiny leaf there is a tiny swollen bulbil. There are some species - particularly P. humilis, P. coronaria and P. albiflora that regularly produce a mass of tiny bulbils, while others and most hybrids produce fewer but rather larger bulbils - but any plant can occasionally produce these really tiny ones instead of their usual larger ones. I think it is related to temperature  mainly - in cooler years there is a tendency to produce more but smaller bulbils. I don't see any sign of fasciation on your bulbils.

Getting these very small bulbils to survive is more tricky than for the larger size ones - I think because they tend to get too desiccated while dormant. So I find the best way to try and grow these is to remove them from the plant when the tiny leaves turn brown, remove the dead leaves to leave just the tiny bulbils and then put these in a small poly bag with a little slightly damp moss. Store this either in a fridge or just somewhere shady in the greenhouse until potting time, then pot them up as normal and keep them just damp until new growth starts. Expect losses!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

That's one mistery solved then and now I know what fasciated is - fascinating this forum  
Thanks all !

[kaygri]

Nice one! Thanks for the info, Paul! Might try experimenting with these bulbils.. See if I can get them to live. The tiny ones were mainly on P. humilis and it would be nice to have a few more to bulk them up.