Vanilla dilloniana Correll 1946 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Tethya
Photo by © Kenneth Roberts
Photo by © Robert and Lisa Riefer
TYPE Drawing by © Donovon Correll
LATE
Common Name Dillon's Vanilla [American Orchid Enthusiast and American Orchid Society Past President 1900's]
Flower Size 2.4" [6 cm]
Found in Florida, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Leeward Islands and Cuba in moist serpentine scrub forests at elevations of 150 to 750 meters as a giant sized, hot to warm growing terrestro-epiphyte with scandent, thick, 8" [20 cm] long internodes, smooth stems carrying fleshy, triangular-lanceolate, somewhat involute, apically hooked, acute, conduplicate, small, bract-like leaves that blooms in the late spring on an axillary, short, several to 8 flowered inflorescence with fleshy broadly ovate, small floral bracts and carrying successively opening, large, showy, ephemeral, fragrant flowers.
"Distinguished by its starry flowers, conspicuously trumpet-shaped 3-lobed lip, edged with rich purple, in which the midlobe is triangular and longer, and with yellowish papillae towards the lip apex. The only known population in Florida has been wiped out, although plants survive in cultivation. Although similar to the other leafless Caribbean species, it is easily distinguished when flowering material is at hand. Vanilla clavicula has an entire lip; from V. barbellata it is distinguished by its larger flowers and much longer midlobe of the lip. Many specimens bear small leaves, similar to those found in V. claviculata and V. poitaei, but rarely seen in V. barbellata. Vanilla poitaei has a larger lip and the margins are crisped." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *AOS Bulletin Vol 15 # 12 1946 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; The Native Orchids of Florida Luer 1972 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 44 #8 1975; An Orchid Flora of Peurto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 69 No 4 2000 photo fide; Moscosoa 13:123 2002 photo fide; The Orchids of Cuba Llamacho & Larramendi 2005 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 79 #10 2010 photo fide; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #5 2011 drawing not = V barbellata; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #6 2011 drawing fide
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