Vanilla ovalis Blanco 1845 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Tethya

Photo by © P.B. Pelser & J.F. Barcelona and The Phyto-Images Website

Common Name The Oval Vanilla

Flower Size 2.8" [7 cm]

Found in the Philippines on trees at low to medium elevations as a large sized, warm to cool growing viney epiphyte with a terete stem carrying green, fleshy, elliptic-oblong, leaves that blooms in the winter and spring on a 4 to 6" [10 to 15 cm] long, 8 to 14 flowered inflorescence with ovate to ovate-oblong, concave floral bracts.

"This is the only leafy Vanilla in the Phillippines. Its sepals and petals are greenish-cream and the lip is marked with purple lines. It is apparently related to V. platyphylla from Sulawesi and to the New Guinean species, but it is distinguished by its very hairy lip apex." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010

Synonyms Vanilla majaijensis Blanco 1845; Vanilla philippinensis Rolfe 1896

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Studies in the Family Orchidaceae Fascile 2 Ames 1908 as V philippinensis; The Complete Writings on Philippine Orchids Vol 1 Quisumbing 1981; The Complete Writings on Philippine Orchids Vol 2 Quisumbing 1981; Orchidiana Philippiana Valmayor 1985; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010

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