Species Information - Vanilla tahitensis

Vanilla tahitensis J.Moore, Bernice P. Bishop Mus. Bull. 102 (1933) 25

Type: Moore 294 (holo BISH; iso BISH)

Synonyms:

• Vanilla hirsuta M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones, Lasianthera 1 (1996) 47, fig. 9, pl. 10B.
  - Type: Canberra Nat. Bot. Garden cult., 6 Jul. 1995 (Clements s.n.) (holo CANB; iso NCBG), collected in PNG, Morobe Prov., Garassa

Plant climbing. Stems about 1 cm across; each node with an adventitious root; internodes up to 12 cm long.. Leaf 1 at each node, sessile, lanceolate, 10-20 by 2.5-3 .5 cm, thick, fleshy; apex attenuate, often recurved. Racemes axillary, to 5 cm long, fleshy, 5 - 12-flowered; floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, 1-2 by 0.7-0.9 cm, with acuminate, spreading. Pedicel and ovary 3-4 cm long. Flowers c. 7 cm across, opening widely; sepals and petals fleshy, pale green; lip greenish-white, yellowish towards the centre. Median sepal narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 6-7 by 1.1-1.3 cm; base tapering, narrow linear-oblong; apex subacute. Lateral sepals narrowly elliptical-lanceolate, 6-7 by 1.1-1.3 cm; base tapering, narrow linear-oblong; apex subacute. Petals oblong-elliptical, 5-5.6 by 0.8-1 cm; base tapering, narrow linear-oblong; apex subobtuse. Lip porrect, tubular, when flattened distinctly 3-lobed, in outline obovate. 4.5-5 by 2-2.4 cm; basal 1.5 cm adnate to the base of the column forming a tube which is inside densely hirsute; lateral lobes c. 2.3 by 0.7 cm, their margins enclosing the column, its front margins erose; base of disk densely hirsute, its front with numerous narrow, sinuate, shallow, longitudinal ridges; mid-lobe oblong-ovate, c. 1 by 0.8 cm, thin, the margins shortly to deeply erose, with numerous narrow, sinuate, shallow, longitudinal ridges. Column porrect, narrowly linear, semiterete, 3-3.3 by c. 0.3 cm, median hirsute, in front near the apex slightly incurved and gibbous; staminode extending prominently above the anther and laterally winged; stigma c. 0.18 cm across; rostellum ovate quadrate, c. 0.2 by 0.2 cm; anther c. obovoid, c. 0.16 by 0.22 cm; pollinia mealy, ovoid, 0.08 cm across. Fruit not seen.
(after Clements & Jones 1996)

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