Vanilla
vanilla
at each stem node, gray-green, slender, and glabrous when free, thick and villous on contact with substrate.
scandent, branching, naked, terete, thick, succulent, glabrous.
persistent when large or deciduous when scalelike, distichous, articulate, sheathless, fleshy or leathery.
on short lateral branches or peduncles, racemes, bracteate, densely flowered.
ephemeral, resupinate, large, showy, opening sequentially;
sepals spreading, distinct and free;
petals distinct and/or free, keeled;
lip adnate to base of column, simple or lobed, margins basally involute;
disc variously ornamented;
column elongate, semiterete, footless, often pubescent proximally;
anther terminal, versatile, incumbent;
pollinia 4, soft, mealy, composed of monads, without accessory structures, appearing triangular when removed as a unit;
ovaries articulate proximally and distally;
stigma lobes confluent;
rostellum undeveloped.
berries, elongate, leathery, indehiscent.
small;
seed coat hard.
, terrestrial or hemiepiphytic, monopodial.
Vanilla
Species 100 (5 in the flora).
Vanilla pompona Schiede has escaped cultivation in Miami-Dade County, Florida (P. M. Brown 2002). It may be distinguished from the other Vanilla species by the following combination of characteristics: persistent leaves that are much longer than the internodes; flat or straight sepal and petal margins; a simple, yellow-green to yellow-orange lip with a tuft of retrorse hairs; and floral bracts that are at least 12 mm. In addition to the characteristics above, V. pompona generally has thicker leaves and stems than the two species for which it may be confused, V. planifolia and V. phaeantha.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaves much shorter than internodes, early deciduous or persistent. | → 2 |
1. Leaves nearly as long as or longer than internodes, persistent. | → 3 |
2. Lip largely reddish purple, no yellow present (in flora); most leaves early deciduous, a few persistent, margins revolute, apex hooked. | V. dilloniana |
2. Lip deep red adaxially, shading to white margins, with broad yellow midrib; all leaves early deciduous, margins not revolute, apex not hooked. | V. barbellata |
3. Sepal and petal margins undulate, apex reflexed; lip disc 3-keeled toward apex, tuft of hairs absent; stems less than 5 mm diam. | V. mexicana |
3. Sepal and petal margins straight, apex spreading; lip disc without keels, tuft of scalelike hairs present; stems more than 6 mm diam. | → 4 |
4. Sepals 7–9 cm; fruits less than 11 cm. | V. phaeantha |
4. Sepals 3.5–5.5 cm; fruits 15–25 cm. | V. planifolia |
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
