Vanilla somae Hayata 1916 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Tethya
Photo by © The Nelocactus Website
Drawing by © Averyanov and The orchids of Vietnam. Illustrated survey. Part 3. Subfamily Epidendroideae (primitive tribes Neottieae, Vanilleae, Gastrodieae, Nervilieae) Website
Common Name The Soma ?Vanilla
Flower Size 1.6 to 2" [4 to 5 cm]
Found in Laos, Thailand, southern China and Vietnam in primary and secondary evergreen broadleaved, mixed and coniferous forests on any kind of soil but most common on limestone, partcularily on steep rocky slopes and cliffs at elevations of 300 to 1400 meters as a large to giant sized, hot to cool growing epiphytic or lithophytic creeping vine with an elongate stem with 2 to 4" [5 to 10 cm] long internodes and carrying narrowly ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, fleshy, shortly petiolate base leaves that blooms in the spring on an erect, monochasial (very rare dichasial), secund, .4 to 1.2" [1 to 3) cm long, with 12 (very rare with 34) 2-flowered secund cymes, flowers simultaneously opening in each cyme with oval, rigid, rounded apically, concave internodal bracts and triangular, acute nodal bracts and carrying white flowers with or without a greenish to yellowish tint and reddish to pink in the the lip interior.
"The rather small flowers with a short tube, the high, flattened papillae arranged in two rows at the lip apex, and the inflorescences with two flowers open simultaneously are characteristic. Its inflorescence structure is similar to that of V. annamica, but in that species the inflorescence is much branched, and the flowers less than half the size." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010
Synonyms Miguelia somae (Hayata) Aver. 2011; Vanilla griffithii var. formosana T.Itτ 1911; Vanilla griffithii var. ronoensis (Hayata) S.S.Ying 1977; Vanilla ronoensis Hayata 1920; Vanilla shenzhenica Z.J.Liu & S.C.Chen 2007
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven and Deyuan 2009 as V shenzhenica; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven and Deyuan 2010 as V shenzhenica drawing fide; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010; The Wild Orchids of Hong Kong Barretto, Cribb and Gale 2011 as V shenzhenica drawing/photo fide; Turczaninowia 2011, 14(2) : 15100 Averyanov 2011 as Miguelia somae drawing/photo fide
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