What happens to very old Lycaste bulbs

[Lars Kurth]

About two years ago, I bought a couple of Lycaste. Ther plants have been doing well, but what I am seeing now is that really old bulbs are starting to go slightly brown/yellow. Also, I saw a large specimem plant at Cambridge botanical garden and there really old bulbs looked like dried paper bags - almost as if the old bulb liquefied from the inside and liquid goo came out, in essence ferilizing the plant.

I am wondering whether this is normal, or whether I should worry.

[WhiteRabbit]

here's a

[Wynn Dee13]

I don't grow Lycaste but other orchids with psuedobulbs use their old back bulbs as storage for nutrients. When the back bulbs don't have anymore to give to the plant they turn brown/yellow, shrivel up, dry out, and die. So I would think that is what is happening to your plant. The plant you saw at the gardens probably just had the shell left of the bulb. If Lycaste bulbs are anything like other psuedobulbs I wouldn't worry about it. It is just a natural cycle of the plant.

[Bud]

pseudobulbs are short lived (1–5 years=maybe just a year for some orchids), but this is continually produced from the growing tip of the rhizome.

you are right my Lycaste dead old p-bulb looks like they imploded