WOW! and youre not even watering nor fertilizing it...it just survives in nature in spite of the LA smog and all...Glendale has a lot of studios and I work with a specific industrial every April(its my 4th year) ...I can see why they thrive...CA has the right humidity in the atmosphere...and you dont have frost...when it rains in LA it really pours!

OK....JEALOUS!...LOL

Epiphyte78- This is a great article! I'm curious to see if your protocorms survive the winter. I know that LA is warm, but not always orchid warm! lol
Uggg, I was constantly pulling up these weeds from my pots and gardens in Hawaii. Especially the Phaius. Those things take over fast!

That is wonderful! Wow!

Can't wait to see what the cute little nubs grow into in 7 to 10 years. The water in the tree trunk will likely keep them above freezing while they're small. Please keep us posted.

Wow...I thought the needed fungi were only found in areas where orchids were native? Also...since almost all orchids are raised from flask, the adult orchid prolly shouldn't have any of the fungus in it's roots either.....I'm baffled, how is such a thing possible?

There are many different types of fungi that can be used successfully. Actually, the recent 'Orchids' magazine has an article where a scientist is trying to get a very rare orchid that is native to the high bogs of Hawaii to germinate under lab conditions. For some reason, the native fungus of the orchid won't work and he ends up using a fungus native to the mainland that works amazingly well! The problem, however, is that he can no longer reintroduce these lab germinated orchids into the bogs because they now harbor an alien fungus. Anyway, my point is that there is more than one way to skin an orchid! :evil:

So in theory.....using mounts and moss and stuff found in the forest behind my hous could possibly be enough to germinate my soon to be Cattleya seeds? I've never heard of someone trying this...but the proof is in the pudding.....or the cedar bark. :biggrin:

Actually, you would probably have better luck sprinkling the sees on top of your parent plant's media or even taking bark from the pots and putting the seeds on them! :goodluck:

Just wait until these boys discover explosively powered (LPG) potato guns. Let's get orchid seeds into trees from a block away... :D

thanks for posting, very interesting.
I was wondering if you could tell if there were more protocorms around dead roots or live roots ? If a root dies, does the fungus release spores which then attach to the trunk a bit further away and then perhaps provide an environment for a seed to germinate ? Is the fungus visible to the naked eye ? I wonder if the relationship between the two prevents another fungi from taking hold.
Please keep us informed, it will be very interesting to see what proportion of the protocorms develop on, or if there is some process of natural selection where only those in a certain environment conducive to futher growth survive.
I suppose you also need to see if any of your neighbours' trees are hosts as well !