Psychopsis?

[TimetoFindMe]

So, I had some friends that were renting a house. I often went over there to check out their out of control landscaping and look for native orchids on the trees since there was a ton of other air plants around.

One day while wandering through the bushes I noticed a totally destroyed pot with what looked like a Paph in it. Upon further inspection I realized it had pseudo bulbs. I put it near some plants I had at my friends house and we he moved and took my plants with him (I don't have full sun as I live in a apartment but he has a yard--he kind of looks after my Gardenia, Passifloras, and Jasmine for me), he took the orchid with him thinking it was something I brought out.

Yesterday I was examining it again and decided to rip it out of the cigarette ashes, dirt, mulch, perlite mix it was in. (lolol) I was shocked to see HUGE roots.

I thinkkk it might be some kind of Psychopsis?? But I really have no idea. I took it home and sprayed it down with pesticide and fungicide and am now soaking it in rooting hormone. I'm going to grow it with my other plants and see what it is...

Considering what its been through it doesn't look too bad. I mean, I found pellets in it (the side of the pot had been shot by a pellet gun =x), cigarette butts, and who knows how old the bark was.


Do you guys have any guesses?




I think I'm going to make a mix with medium bark, perlite, charcoal, and a tiny bit of humus since it seemed to really enjoy the dirt/bark/ash mix it was in. We shall see.



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All potted up:

[Junebug]

I believe what you have is not an orchid but a Sansevieria. It's a member of the agave family.

[TimetoFindMe]

Ohhh!!! Maybeeee. I have never seen bulbs on them but that makes sense. hahah I never really grew them. Always been into fragrant, herbs, vines and heirloom plants.

The roots being thickened and such would make sense, since those guys like to dry out.

It was in bark and perlite which is I thought it might be an orchid. It does look like Sansevieria masoniana

Thank you.


Also, when I trimmed the roots they had the stringy like filament inside the mushy dead ones. I haven't played with Sansevieria very much but I thought mainly orchids had roots like that? The roots also turned green when wet.

[erna]

Originally Posted by Junebug

I believe what you have is not an orchid but a Sansevieria. It's a member of the agave family.

This was my first thought.
There are however, some things that still puzzle me.
The roots of the plant in question are not the roots of Sansevieria. Sansevieria has an orange coloured rhizome with very fine fiberous roots.( at least the ones which grow in my country). The leaves certainly look like it but the spike in the picture is also not that of Sansevieria.
IMHO
Lets hear from some others.

[TimetoFindMe]

I would also like to add that it had some smaller roots that were white, with green growing tips. They looked like Oncidium roots but there was only a couple and they were growing out of the medium. Thats also why I thought it was an orchid.

The roots are very deep green right now because it got soaked in rooting hormone.

Do any other plants do that?

What I have read about Sansevieria (mansoniana fits the visual) fits the description of this plant but I haven't been able to find any information on the roots, and thats what made me think orchid. The spike it has based on the location looks like Sansevieria.

I took a picture of the roots emerging. They are coming out where the new growth is, right underneath it. The tips are light green. The roots now have a rough white, scaley look to them and only one is green and its in contact with a piece of perlite.

_____________________________
Here are the images that made me think (probably more so hope =P) this was a Psychopsis:


Not my image: a spike

Not my image: new bulbs


Not my images: roots



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It had husks around the bulbs but I ripped it away when I was spraying it down. I tend to take the husks away from any bulbs to make sure bugs aren't hiding there. I also cut leaves and dead bulbs out. The sheaths had papery nodes kind of on it, too.

[TimetoFindMe]

So tried getting better pictures of the mysterious roots and ended up uprooting the poor thing again and had to repot it (again).

Also, should I cut out that backbulb? I mean, if it is an orchid... Its not squishy, its still firm. I had just cut a half green leaf off of it. heh


You can see the roots coming out of the new growth, and the green tips on them.

You can see the scaliness of the roots. They remind me of a happy mounted Aerangis I saw in a grower's personal collection. They're at least 4mm thick.


The spike thing
The flash and macro makes the plant look 50x grosser than it does. I swear I cleaned it well!

[Fernando]

I think it is Oeceoclades maculata.

Regards
Fer

[TimetoFindMe]

Thank you that looks a lot like it! I am in Florida too. It was doing quite well outside considering it was being used as an ashtray forever.

I guess adding some humus to the mix was a good idea? heh

[Wrebbitrocks]

those look all too much like orchid roots to be anything else. when i had my psychopsis, though, the bulbs were much rounder and stouter and didnt stand straight up like that. yours are very egg shaped and upright. also, the leaves on my psychopsis, anyways, were on the tips of the bulbs. the leaves on your bulbs wrap arounf the top part of the bulbs not unlike a zygopetalum. it could be, i guess a psychopsis with that mottling and the spike shape, but theres no way of knowing til it blooms

[Paul Mc]

I was going to say the same thing. The psychopsis p-bulb's I have seen were always more round in shape. The p-bulbs of what you have don't look quite right to me to be a psychopsis. However, the leaf coloration did give me a moment of wondering.