Vanilla polylepis Summerh. 1951

Plant and Flower in situ Zimbabwe Photo by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

Common Name The Many Scaled Vanilla

Flower Size 4" [10 cm]

Found in Zaire, Kenya, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in riverine forests at elevations around 1200 to 1500 meters as a giant sized, warm growing epiphyte with a dark green, succulent, channeled, 6" internoded stems carrying a single oblong, apicaulate, bright, glossy green leaf and a single root per internode clinging to both rocks and trees and blooms in the spring on axillary, many succussively single flowered inflorescence with flowers that last 1 to 3 days.

Synonyms Vanilla schliebenii Mansf. ex Schlieben 1937

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing/photo fide; Malawi Orchids La Croix 1983; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996, African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997

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