Vanilla mexicana Mill.

  • Authority

    Ackerman, James D. 1995. An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 73: 1-203.

  • Family

    Orchidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Vanilla mexicana Mill.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants terrestrial or hemiepiphytic vines, many meters long. Roots usually 1 per node, aerial portions 1-2 mm diam. Stems scandent, occasionally branched, leafy, smooth, very slender, 2-3 mm diam. Leaves persistent, longer than internodes, flat, fleshycoriaceous, elliptic to broadly ovate, acuminate, to 25 cm long, 12 cm wide, upper leaves smaller and proportionately narrower. Inflorescences axillary, short-pedunculate racemes, several-flowered, to 17 cm long; floral bracts foliaceous to 2.5 cm long, 1.5 cm wide. Flowers large, showy, resupinate, produced sequentially. Pedicellate ovary to 5 cm long. Sepals and petals green, thick, rigid, spreading. Sepals oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate-elliptic, acute, tips reflexed, margins undulate, to 6.5 cm long, 2 cm wide. Petals similar, dorsally keeled, slightly smaller. Lip white with yellow crest, cuneate and basally adnate to the column for 5 mm, trilobed above, to 5 cm long, 3 cm wide when spread; lateral lobes rounded, involute and arching over the column; middle lobe broadly triangular, obtuse to rounded, margin undulate; disc with a thick longitudinal crest, 5 mm wide and becoming 3-keeled toward apex, glabrous. Column white, slender, 20-25 mm long; pollinia yellow. Fruits slender, cylindrical, to 27 cm long.

  • Discussion

    5. Vanilla mexicana Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 1. 1768. Type. Plumier s.n., from Haiti (original illustration at P, not seen; reproduction: Plumier, Nov. PL Amer. pi. 28, t. 188. 1703). Epidendrum vanilla Linnaeus, Sp. PL, ed. 1, 2: 952. 1753. Vanilla aromatica Swartz, Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 6: 66. 1799. Vanilla vanilla (Linnaeus) Britton in Britton & Wilson, Bot. Porto Rico 5: 185. 1924. Type. Linnaeus cited illustrations published by Plukenet (1696, t. 320, f. 4, not seen), Merian (1714, t. 25), and Catesby (1747, appendix, t. 7); Swartz cited the Linnaean binomial and the Plumier plate. Vanilla inodora Schiede, Linnaea 4: 574. 1829. Type. Schiede & Deppe s.n., from Mexico (BM). Phenology & Pollination. In Puerto Rico, flowering occurs in the spring, but in the Lesser Antilles it may occur sporadically throughout the year (Garay & Sweet, 1974). Its pollination biology is unknown. Illustrations. C. A. Luer, 1972; Garay & Sweet, 1974.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Florida (U.S.A.), Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, northern South America, and West Indies.

    United States of America North America| Guatemala Central America| Mexico North America| Nicaragua Central America| Brazil South America| Bolivia South America| Peru South America| Ecuador South America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| West Indies|