It's a root. This is fairly common for phals that are recovering after losing a lot of roots. A good sign! Edited to add a photo of a phal I rescued that's doing the same thing. The two bottom leaves are in really rough shape, and probably should have fallen off when the others did (I found this in a coworker's trash, totally dehydrated), but shockingly, they never died. This guy finally has a root system that can support the plant again. After three less-than-stellar leaves, it has sprouted a perfect, healthy, normal-sized leaf. Hopefully a spike isn't too far behind. This post was edited by Danielle317 on Thu, Jun 12, 14 at 15:18

I have the same exact problem. I'm living in a gated 300 unit townhouse complex with no deer or wild animals other than an occasional possum, raccoon a squirrels. I just took a walk and noticed 100s of cut-off Agapanthus (peter Pan) buds or crowns missing here and there but mostly where there are no windows or owners around. The crowns or buds seems to be cut off at the very top with a sharp object and are nowhere to be found! Who/what is this? Please let us know because it's driving me and my neighbors crazy spring after spring.

I typed that and hit submit as soon as I could! Ill be a bit more detailed ZZ are true succulents, semitropical succulents maybe, but they are not big fans of water, I root cutting is dry medium, watered rarely, the cutting often yellow up bad. Water in the presence if open wounds is bad, if its under the ground then u can count on numerous pathogens in there too! Bad news for and open wound on a plant that's not rapidly growing! I'm going to guess that it was the root prune that caused this, I've noticed damaged zz roots often(always?) die off when severely damaged, such as being whacked in half... They may lose all the old roots, wet or dry, but if kept moist, and the tuber is below soil, which it almost certainly is, then rot may progress into the tuber, as you've seen! Best case... You lose lots of leaflets. And several full fronds, the plants will never be the same, but given time can fully recover! The worst case is grim, ur clearly a good gardener, no need to discuss worst case! I have this same issue with zz, they just want to be left alone! I can't do that very well... Don't give up hope tho, get em dry, then clean em up good, as u have been, I'd let em sit a day, maybe 2 out of the soil... And then once satisfied I had stopped the rot, I would prop them up in dry medium, not so super dry as perlite straight outta the bag, that will desiccate them, but very dry mix, as if they r planted, but they really won't be! And at that point I'd let them sit for a good long while, no direct sun, no pouring water, occasionally mist, and occasionally lift them from the medium and check for more rot, then reprop them up in the pot of dry mix. This will keep their shape uptight and not twisted, and eventually u will start to see root progress, at the point I see even, ample root nubs distributed all around I'd then repot them in a more stable soil, basically, without roots the plants are cutting and need the same treatment... I'm so sorry, they were marvelous plants! It's awful killing off plants u love, but u can save them, and restore them to their former glory!

Sometimes I like to dig furrows in a shady location. Long trenches about a shovels depth. Heeling all the plants into the trench and slightly covering them with soil. If for any reason an emergency comes up I have taken the responsibility of creating a nursery to baby-sit my root stock and help the excess foliage wanting to wilt. Do this to warm up youre muscles when calm and the morning hours are still cool. You'll thank yourself if the weather turns hot and plants that you couldnÂt get divided and transplanted for another day or two were left to bake. Summer is here. In this way you can set the pace of work. DonÂt let the garden dictate when you are needing to rest the body. By preparing this way you can retire early and prepare dinner or tend to aching muscles. Gardening can be enjoyable with the heeling of plants while renovating large beds. If you need to quit in the middle of the project for a few days time you add more soil literally planting the heeled plants. Water them heavily. Just be neat when trenching. Clean work is rewarding when in a rush at the end of a long day. Keep all the soil piled neatly along one side of the trench. So it can be pulled back easily atop the plants. At least this will give you time if preparing new beds means cultivating unexpected hard soil. Sounds odd but I sometimes keep a kiddy pool full of water. So I can wash out the soils of tuberous roots and divide them rapidly. Once again if IÂm leaving for an emergency plants like Triadescantia Spiderwort (IÂve never spelled that one corrctly)Â.you get the idea. Some plants can sit in water for a week. Happy and able to keep thier foliage strong. When IÂm working with woodland types such as Trilliums, Gaultheria, Troutlillies, Bloodroot, Solomons Seal, Jack in the Pulpit, Ferns, etc I have a low dividing and or transplanting death rate using the pool with enough cool water out of sunlight . Some of the old gardens IÂve worked in have these woodland perennials as part of the gardens content and they are the aristocrats of pampering.I work with them like a florist cuts stems underwater. Some needing a bucket full of soil from underneath a particular tree like a hemlock grove to be reworked into the new beds soil. Any way youre perennials are easier. The key in my opinion if you are designing on the whim is preparing trenches to heel youre stock in case of mental block or physical exhaustion. Make sure they are well watered for the week in advance if no rain is in sight. With very large rootstock perrenials I'll leave the hose overnight on a slow drip like run to soak the plant like a true rain would. That is for the ones I really like. Such as when Transplanting Japanese maples I use this method of slow soaking. That helps. I like to cut squares of burlap of different sizes. Many in fact. So I can place a perrenials rootball atop the square and lift the plant easily. Keeps the lawn clean also carrying around plants. Summer plantings can require unsightly wells for each grouping or individual plant. This will be invaluable come summer drought and heat. More so in Virginia. I keep a pole or thin crowbar and poke a few holes around the well as I water. Sticking the hose into the hole and soaking the soil from bottom up. Cinching the hose to limit the flow of water so as not to rush water out of the hole poked by the bar. Its slow but the air pockets get saturated with water. I never liked pounding the surface with water knowing the bottom of the plant might still be dry. This is great for kids to try. They love mudpies. And its a good way to reming plants need care and water. On another note: I spent my summers in Virginia with my mothers parents. My grandmother was a gardener and painter. She had to deal with those hot summer days and nights with that orange clay soil that would bake like a potters kiln. A big change from the North East garden she tended. Near Roanoke, Town of Huddleston across from Lynchburg. Smith Mountain Lake. Appalachian Power Company Dam Project. Virginia makes my heart ache. I miss her. Appalachian trial. Chatanooga River and North- South Carolina into Georgia. What a magical place. And the round bails of straw! Used to hide in those when the farmer would come chasing me and a friend occasionally shootin Rock salt from a shot gun. WeÂd be taking all his catfish from the cattle pond. To make up for his large sized stock weÂd put little ones from the lake into the pond. Mr. Wilkerson.Âs pond. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of Tobacco, Corn and straw fields. I donÂt know who the guy that was shooting was. Never really got a good look since it was always in the night. I still think it was the guy adjacent to the farm or down the road.. IÂd see him fishing the same pond during the morning daylight. I could recognize that hunched over back form from the night silhouette. We were a crazy pair of kids about fourteen years old.. Picking Tobacco worms off the plants all day., Placing Tobacco into the slated wood inside the barn to cure for pocket money. That stuff burnt a whole in my cheeks chewing it half dried. WeÂd pocket a bunch of leaves for the nights fishing. The closest store was an hours drive more or less. To far to walk. Pass time spitting.Cicadas and lightning bugs. I swore I caught more catfish spitting tobacco juice onto my chicken liver and bread. Sometimes the mosquitoes were so bad we would leave the poles and bury ourselves into the round straw bails.Falling asleep not realizing a light rain passed through. Untill a lightning crashed our sleep. Lightning seems to have a livlier personality while cruising across Virginia Farmland. Like its waiting to get you. After a while we kept one bail as our secret stash of fishing gear. Kept the cooler inside to. We were typical mischevious adventerous boys. But my friend was another local farmers son so at leat my Yankee butt had some protection. And he made sure I learned the local slang over those years so as to fit in. It sucked to come back to N.Y. where the kids never understood the finer parts of growing up. The better half of the English language. Southern accents made me feel like I'd live a longer life. That laid back tommarows a new day attitude. My N.Y. friends all went to summer camps. While I was living a summer like a by gone era. We even used Mr Wilkersons Outhouse. He had no plumbing and was a millionaire. He liked me. And for A while I hated Yanks just keep him from finding out I was a yank. Everyone including adults were afraid of him. He disliked the D.C. folk and New Yorkers buying up his lakefront land. His lots a few years later were fetching two hundred thousand dollars each. . Around 1992. He was smart and wealthy.But I wish to this day he could have kept his land. I saw the pain in his eyes to see the others moving onto his familly land. Guess me being a kid he adopted me as a local kid.I had the tanned skin and orange stained shoes to look like the rest. Along with the fresh cured tobacco hanging out of pockets. Never asking where I was from. Making me feel at home.Sitting on his front porch the local newcomers who bought his land were in disbelief to see me with him. They never spoke to him after the sale of land. But went rushing over to my Grandparents to rat me out. They didnt like most of the locals. But acted like fakes when face to face. Saying hello and being all proper. Funny how adults acted looking back at those summer months gone by. Mr. Wilkerson wanted nothing to do with those rude obnoxious people. And in that sense I felt the animosity still pent up from the civil war. He was honest. He let me know that the South still is proud and alive. A way of life. I felt what books couldnt ever teach. I was an impressionable youth. But my Grandparents were New yorkers retired on his land so I was fearfull to talk. I always just sat quietly. Looking out into the fields. Letting Mr. Wilkerson talk on the rare occasion. And I now feel like the luckiest kid from New York to meet Old Mr. Wilkerson who was a southern gentleman. I understood then how silence means being respectfull of the other persons viewpoint. I was silent out of fear. But I learned a southern viewpoint on Northerners buying up the soil his family and generations before had tilled. That must be like adding salt to old wounds. I miss the South. Hope my grandparents donÂt read this. My summers in Virginia were quite peaceful months to their recollection. Sorry for the lengthy post. Gardening is giving so many flashbacks of past experiences I want to let them loose. Ricky.