!Vanilla mexicana Mill. 1768 SUBGENUS Vanilla
Photo by © Werkhoven
Photo by © Julian Kenny
To
Common Name The Mexican Vanilla
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
Found in Florida, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Windwards and Venezuela in rainforests along rivers and creeks at elevations of 50 to 1000 meters as a climbing, large sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with yellow green stems carrying every 2.8" [7 cm], yellow green, glossy, rather fleshy leaves that blooms in the summer on an axillary, sessile, to 4" [10 cm] long, few flowered inflorescence with fragrant flowers.
"The taxonomic history of this species is very confusing. Mexican specimens referred to this species belong to V. inodora. Its lip is 3-lobed, the midlobe is well-developed and can be subacute to rounded. It is closely related to V. costaricensis with a truncate lip, to V. ovata and V. martinezii with larger flowers, and the latter with many warts near the base of the lip. Some authors have considered V. inodora as the valid name of this species. Although the type of V. inodora is lacking flowers, there is abundant material from the original area to establish that it is the species common in Mesoamerica that has a thick, longitudinal cushion-like callus and is widely known as V. pfaviana. The West Indies taxon with a callus formed by 3 longitudinal keels it is unknown in Mexico." Soto Arenas & Cribb
Synonyms Epidendrum aromaticum (Sw.) J.Parm. 1818; *Epidendrum vanilla L. 1753; Notylia vanilla (L.) Conz. 1947; Vanilla angustifolia Willd. 1805; Vanilla anaromatica Griseb. 1864; Vanilla aromatica Sw. 1799; Vanilla axillaris Mill. 1768; Vanilla epidendrum Mirb. 1804; Vanilla pleei Portères 1951; Vanilla vanilla (L.) Huth 1893
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora Brasilica Vol XII II Hoehne 1945 drawing ok; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959 as V inodora drawing ok; Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 1 Foldats 1969 as V inodora drawing ok; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 drawing fide; Flora of the Lesser Antilles Garay & Sweet 1974 as V pleei; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing ok; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 352 Dodson 1980 drawing ok; Orchids of Surinam Wekhoven 1986 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing ok; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 5 Dodson 2004 drawing ok; LANKESTERIANA 9(3): 357 Soto & Cribb 2010; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #5 2011 photo fide;
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