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- - Phalaenopsis with small leaves (http://www.orchidboard.com/community/pests-and-diseases/59702-phalaenopsis-leaves.html)

Usually The more light an orchid gets, the lighter green the leaves are. Too little light and they are dark green. However, this is very true for oncidium and cattleya types but I have found Phal leaves can be very dark, even with a reasonable amount of light while others beside it might have lighter leaves. I think their colour is determined more by genetics and flower colour. Many with pink or purple flowers are quite dark and have a purple pigmentation on them.

I think you might need to do a bit of experimenting with this one!

I also have noticed that while catts and some other genera have lighter leaves under higher light, Phals can get darker leaves under high light. Although a lot of my mini catts can get a really dark purple color under high light too. So I agree with Silken about experimenting with this plant. Let us know how it goes!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wynn Dee13 (Post 496271)

I was just reading in my Orchids magazine (May 2008) an article about light. It says Phals grown under excessively low light levels develop thin, narrow longer leaves. So maybe the older longer leaves on your plant were grown in low light and now under higher light the plant is growing smaller rounded leaves. It makes since the plant would need less surface area in the leaves for photosynthesis if grown under higher light.

I got a NOID Phal last year as a gift and it had long skinny leaves with a small spike. Now the new leaves that have grown under my care are shorter and wider. They also are darker green. This year it bloomed with a huge spike that branched three times and had a lot more flowers that were bigger than when I got it. I think the leaves are shorter, wider and darker green because I gave it higher light.

But this is the opposite of what Bob said so I don't know. That is just my experience.

Are the flowers small? Could it be a mini Phal?

thats very interesting! i can type out the article if you want. both seem to make sense. :roll: lol!

if it is in lower light then it had before, then why are the older leaves (grown before he/she got it) longer and thinner?

i still think it is due to low light though, because of the dark leaves. ive observed in my collection that phals will get lighter in higher light, then even higher then that, they will get darker. and as noted above, pink and purple phals will often exhibit dark leaves and sometimes red pigmentation on or under them.

Bob- There probably is no way of knowing what kind of light the plant was growing in before he got the plant so maybe it is being grown in higher light now than before. I'm not sure though.

But my NOID Phal gets darker leaves in higher light and the flowers are white with pink veins and pink lip. This is the flower:Attachment 68118

I have noticed that my bellina gets lighter leaves under higher light so maybe it depends on what species are in the background of the hybrid.

It is quite interesting that the plant is growing like that!

Wynn Dee

Good point. But if it (I assume) was flowering for the original owner, wouldn't you think that it was in good lighting then? Maybe it's not lighting, some other factor perhaps!

I think it definitely depends in the parentage for lead coloration habita