# Do Vandas get terminal spikes?



## jacqi (Apr 4, 2016)

I recently obtained a Vasco. Crown fox Magic and I noticed it was growing
a pair of new leaves. Yeah. Then I looked closer and saw it was also growing
a spike from the top of the plant. Do Vascos do terminal spikes like Phals?
Or is this ok?


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## PaphMadMan (Apr 4, 2016)

I don't think you can rule out any monopodial orchid getting a terminal spike, and I think it is probably more common than most people think. Is it ok? In many cases a healthy plant will develop a basal or lateral growth and the only ill effect may be a gap in the normal flowering schedule while the new growth matures a bit. I think this is even more likely with a typical Vanda type than with many Phals. Multiple active leads is a pretty typical growth pattern for many Vandas anyway, at least as mature plants.

Let me point out that there is a common misconception about the meaning of "terminal spike". It doesn't mean death is near, it refers to the location of the spike at the terminus (end) of the stem - just a descriptive term in botany about where the flowers arise. Since the ancestral form for orchids is sympodial growth pattern with terminal inflorescence, it isn't surprising it pops up once in a while in monopodials.

And, Crownfox is one word, commonly used by R.F. Orchids in cultivar names since 1996.


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## myxodex (Apr 7, 2016)

PaphMadMan said:


> I don't think you can rule out any monopodial orchid getting a terminal spike, and I think it is probably more common than most people think. Is it ok? In many cases a healthy plant will develop a basal or lateral growth and the only ill effect may be a gap in the normal flowering schedule while the new growth matures a bit. I think this is even more likely with a typical Vanda type than with many Phals. Multiple active leads is a pretty typical growth pattern for many Vandas anyway, at least as mature plants.
> 
> Let me point out that there is a common misconception about the meaning of "terminal spike". It doesn't mean death is near, it refers to the location of the spike at the terminus (end) of the stem - just a descriptive term in botany about where the flowers arise. Since the ancestral form for orchids is sympodial growth pattern with terminal inflorescence, it isn't surprising it pops up once in a while in monopodials.
> 
> And, Crownfox is one word, commonly used by R.F. Orchids in cultivar names since 1996.



Thanks for the interesting background information.

The pine needle type of neofinetia do this a lot. Awaharibeni is an example. 

Neo's are usually quite regular in their flowering pattern in that this year's flower spike will emerge from a leaf node just above, or at least within two to three nodes above that which produced last year's flower spike. When the growth season has been poor and the number of leaf nodes between this "flowering zone" and the apex is not maintained, the plant might even skip a flowering season. I've had one instance where a plant atypically flowered from three consecutive leaf nodes in one season and then skipped flowering on that growth the following year.

It makes me wonder whether there is some sort of hormonal repression of flowering coming from the apex which can be perturbed by changes in enviromental conditions? At the moment I have a neo Toyozakura which is producing a spike two nodes down from the apex, so although not terminal, it has skipped over a number of nodes which I think of as being the "flowering zone". This spike I know from experience will be weak and produce fewer and smaller flowers. This plant was not getting enough light over the last year and a month ago I moved it to a better position. Furthermore it is producing this spike unseasonally early and before the plant has started producing new roots.

In the case of Awaharibeni it seems a predisposition to do this is inherited.


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## naoki (Apr 8, 2016)

I'm not sure about the current state for the search for "florin", Tim, but I'm sure it is hormonal regulation issue. Here is a relatively recent review from quick googling:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2014.00465/full


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