Vanilla phaeantha Rchb.f. 1865 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Xanata
Photos by © David McAdoo
Common Name The Black-Brown Flowered Vanilla
Flower Size 7.2" [18 cm]
Found in Florida, El Salvador, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Leewards, Windwards, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago in deep forests in shade at elevations of sealevel to 700 meters as a large sized, hot to warm growing terrestro/epiphyte with an elongate, stout, fractiflex from node to node, round in cross-section stem carrying fleshy, oblong, acute leaves that blooms in the spring and summer on an axillary, to 2" [to 5 cm] long, few flowered inflorescence
"A common leafy species in the Caribbean area. The oblong-elliptic, xerophytic, leaves are usually shorter than the internodes. The flowers are very large, with greenish tepals, and the lip is white with yellow stripes. It is related to V. bahiana, from Brazil. From the "vanplanifolia.htm"> V. planifolia and V. odorata complexes can be distinguished by its not warty disc." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010
Synonyms Vanilla planifolia var. macrantha Griseb 1866
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora of Jamaica Fawcett & Rendle 1910 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 5 1959; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing ok could this be swapped with their drawing of V pompona; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; Las Orquideas De El Salvador Vol 2 Hamer 1974 drawing/photo ok; Las Orquideas de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing ok; Orchidaceae Antillanae Nir 2000; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 7 2009 photo fide; Lankesteriana 9(3): 327-329, f. 9. Soto Arenas 2010 Drawing fide; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #5 2011 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #8 2017 photo fide;
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