On Tue, 24 Oct 2006 20:04:16 -0700, Steve wrote
(in article ) :

J Fortuna wrote:
This is the weirdest spike I have ever seen: I just discovered that my phal
equestris is in spike and must have been for quite a while without my
noticing it. The spike is under the lowest leaf and it circled back and the
tip of the spike had burrowed into the plant so that it was attached to the
plant's core (or whatever the part of the plant which the leaves are
attached to is called) both at the bottom and at the tip of the spike in a
full circle. .............................

My best guess would be that the spike didn't circle back and dig in, but
that the tip of the spike never left the plant in the first place. I
think it got hung up at the beginning and as the stem tried to grow it
pushed out as a loop.

Steve

I'm watching the same thing on one of my phals. I nudged the tip of the spike
away from the underside of the leaf above (without breaking it!) and am now
watching a normal growing tip emerge from the stub which had originally been
butting against the leaf.

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D70