Vanda suavis Lindl. 1848 Photo courtesy of Jean Claude George

Another Color Form Photo courtesy of Oak Hill Gardens

and

Common Name The Soft Vanda

Flower Size 2 to 3" [5 to 7 cm]

Found in Java and Laos as a large sized, hot growing epiphyte, lithophyte or terrrestrial with long, erect stems carrying curved, ligulate, imbricate, unequally bilobed apically leaves that blooms on an axillary, erect to suberect, 2 to 3" [5 to 7 cm] long, shorter that the leaves, several [7 to 12] flowered inflorescence with large, fragrant, waxy, long-lived, color variable flowers occuring in the fall and winter. There asre 2 types , var suavis which hails from Central and Eastern Java has an inflorescnece with 15 or more flowers, narrower and longer sepals anmd petals and the apical lobules of the lip are turned abruptly downwards and are paler than the rest of the midlobe. Var tricolor has aninflorescence with 6 to 9 flowers, the sepals and petals being different in width and are shorter the side lobules being erect, and they and the midlobe are evenly colored.

Synonyms Limodorum suaveolens Reinw. ex Blume 1849; Vanda suaveolens Blume 1849; Vanda tricolor Hook. 1849; Vanda tricolor Lindley 1847; Vanda tricolor var suavis [Lindley] Rchb.f

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing; Die Orchideen Von Java J.J.Sm. 1905 as V tricolor; Orchids of Java Comber 1990; AOS Bulletin Vol 61 No 9 1992 photo as V tricolor; AOS Bulletin Vol 70 No 10 2001 photo as V tricolor; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 7 2003 photo as V tricolor; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 1 2006 photo as V tricolor; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 10 2008 photo as V tricolor var suavis

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