Vanilla ruiziana Klotzsch 1846 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Xanata Collection Sheet by Ruiz López, H. & J. A. Pavón y Jiménez © and The Harvard Herbaria Website

Common Name Ruiz's Vanilla []

Flower Size

Found in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia as a large sized, viney terrestrial.

"The identity of V. ruiziana has remained obscure since its publication in 1846. The holotype specimen, lost when the Berlin Herbarium was destroyed, was sterile, having stout stems and acute to acuminate, lanceolate-oblong leaves. However, at least a duplicate of the same collection (“247 Epidendrum lanceolatum, vaynilla vulgo, folium cum caule, et flor” in Ruiz & Pavón handscript, and annotated “M. Pavón”, perhaps in Reichenbach’s hand) has been found in Geneva (G 7889/167)! The flowers are relatively poorly preserved, but it is possible to appreciate its granulose sepals and ovary surface, the thickened veins of the lip and the acute, strongly subcalyptrate sepals. This combination of characters is exclusive to the modern specimens from Peru and Bolivia. The type specimen of V. weberbaueriana, although bearing only young buds, also belongs here. Leaf shape differences between the types of V. ruiziana and V. weberbaueriana seem striking, but there are intermediate specimens connecting both extremes. The vegetative parts of V. ruiziana seem to be taken from a shaded spot. Portères (1954) assigned V. weberbaueriana to subsection Membranacea (= subsect. Vanilla). The study of more abundant material shows that V. ruiziana is closely related to V. hostmanii, differing mostly in its shorter inflorescences, the tepals which are acute, the sepals conspicuously calyptrate and a larger, ovate midlobe to the lip which bears 1 to 3 elevated, axial keels near the apex." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010

Synonyms Vanilla weberbaueriana Kraenzl. 1906

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010

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