This sad looking plant is in desperate need of some attention. It is obviously suffering from the invasive presence of the liverwort. These strange plants are non-vascular Bryophytes and have a growth form, seen here, which is the gametophyte. By that I mean that it only has one set of chromosomes (n) rather than you or me which have 2 (2n). Put another way, they are haploid and we are diploid. They do have a diploid phase but it is transitory and judging by the way they can spread in the nursery, I suspect not so common as their asexual reproduction. This is simply by them producing gemmae in those upturned cups you see in the photograph which are splashed around by rain and my watering can. Each one starting off a new plant. The one which we seem to have this year is probably a species of Pellia, and most likely Pellia epiphylla. Even though it takes time to repot the plants that need it the liverworts are quite fascinating in their own right, even down to having rhizoids, not roots, which are single cells. These can form quite a dense mat just below the soil surface which is why there is little point in trying to weed them out, better to repot before the liverwort grows over the top of the orchid seedling, which may be small but has taken two years to grow that big and still needs help in surviving.
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