Vanilla pilifera Holttum 1951 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Tethya
Photos by André Schuiteman, Dr. E.F. de Vogel and Jaap Vermeulen and Their Netherlands National Herbarium Website
Photos by Peter O'Byrne/C Y Ling
Thailand Version, Talk of separating this one to a new species
Photo by S Suddee
EARLIER 
Common Name or Meaning The Bornean Vanilla - In Thailand - Sam roi to yai
Flower Size 2.7" [6.8 cm]
Found in Assam, Thailand, Malaysia and Borneo in dry evergreen hill forests on sandstone at elevations of sea level to 1000 meters as a large sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with an elongate, terete climbing stem carrying short stalked leaves that have an abrupt narrow tip blooming in the winter and earlier spring on a 1.2 to 2.8" [3 to 7 cm] long, to 6 flowered inflorescence with speading bracts and carrying fragrant flowers.
Vanilla borneense is a problem as Rolfe's type of the species consists only of fruiting materiel and no information is available on the flower so I follow Ong 2018, Ling & Ong 2016 and discard it and use V pilifera.
"It is easily distinguished by its lanceolate to elliptic, often narrow, short leaves and conspicuously hirsute disc of lip. It is closely related to V. diabolica, from Sulawesi." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010
Synonyms Vanilla borneensis Rolfe 1896
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Malaya Vol 1 Holttum 1953 drawing fide; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 drawing not = V albida; Dansk Botanisk Arkiv Bind 32 nr 2 Orchids of Thailand VI Neottiideae Seidenfaden 1978 as V pilifera drawing fide; The Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Wood & Seidenfaden 1992 drawing/photo fide; The Plants of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Orchids Beaman, Wood, Beaman & Beaman 1993 photo fide; The Plants of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Orchids Beaman, Wood, Beaman & Beaman 1993 as V aff pilifera; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994 as V borneensis; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010 as V borneense; The Orchids of Mount Kinabalu Vol 1 Wood, Beaman, Lamb, Chu Lun and Beaman 2011; The Orchids of Mount Kinabalu Vol 2 Wood, Beaman, Lamb, Chu Lun and Beaman 2011; Flora Of Thailand Orchidaceae Vol 12 Part 1 Pedersen, Kurzweil, Suddee & Cribb 2011 drawing/photo fide; Malesian Orchid Journal Vol 18 2016 as V pilifera photo fide;
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