Can a Catt alliance have a keiki ?
 

I have a SLC. Jewel Box 'Sheherazade' that seems to have a growth where a sheath should be. It even looks like it has a little root bud if you can see down in there. Can Catts have keikis or do they sometimes grow another stem off of a stem ?

That's a new one to me. Never seen that before, or heard it happening with a Cattleya alliance plant. Keep us posted on how it develops. If it does develop roots etc I would not separate it from the main plant until it has formed another growth from that "keiki"

I don't even know how I would remove it without damaging the mother plant.

yes they pop up little pups at times instead of buds in a sheath. It wont grow or do anything but die. I Cut em off. Save the plants energy for what it needs to be doing.

My brassavolas do that a lot. Instead of buds I get little leafs pop up out of the crease. Snip snip..:waving

It's not super common, but it does happen.

New green tissue just adds to the strength of the plant, no matter where it is. A leaf is a leaf no matter where it grows. Green = photosynthesis = more energy, not less. And sometimes a growth like this can continue to develop. There is certainly no reason not to let it go and see what it does.

Thanks for that. I intend to let it go where it will. the plant does have a couple of sheaths, so I think 'no foul' and see what happens.

Strange, I have never see it before.

I had never heard of this, till this past December.

At the local AOS Judging Center, I got 3 plants in the fundraising auction. One of those was a keiki of a natural Laelia hybrid (L x fincheniana), produced by a plant at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

Correction: Reed stem Epidendrums do it all the time.