The roots of orchids are unique in the plant kingdom. They are thick and mostly white, but are not produced with the same abundance as in other plants.

They consist of a thin inner core, with an absorbent outer covering made up of layers of dead cells. This layer, which soaks up water through its surface, is called the velamen, and it progresses behind the green growing tip.

The tips of orchid roots are extremely vulnerable to damage and can be easily broken when they are outside the pot.

Some vandas, on the other hand, have rounded, or terete, foliage, which lessens the surface area on plants that can survive in areas of full sun. Leaves that remain for one or two seasons only are wide, soft and papery, such as with the lycastes, while leaves that are hard and leathery will live for much longer.

In the same way as the leaves are shed from the plant after one or a few years, so the roots die naturally to be replaced by those from the new growth. In monopodial orchids such as vandas, the roots are made at intervals

Aim lac rhizome and seldom have nett law underground. Many orchids :Ticaosynthesize through the roots, n Mme examples there are a tii small epiphytic species that wine :become totally leafless, relying apon a bundle of thick roots to eritibe necessary chlorophyll. The soots of some orchids are also ammarb.ranractive; in phalaenopsis they ameniram white when outside the pot.

A few orhids, such as gongoras and other species, produce short side roots at angle from the main ones. blur are produced near the base of the sameamid become hard and as sharp as des as they mature.

They form a penetrable barrier as a protecmmagnirra pests that might otherwise main meir pseudobulbs. Roots are extremely important to orchids. If they are killed through overwatering, they cannot be replaced until nriniant makes new growth, which may grow, plant surviving for several years without roots and unable to amr ay moisture.