Vanilla barbellata Rchb.f.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.
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Family
Orchidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Non-woody vine, glabrous, scarcely branched. that climbs by means of aerial roots and attains 5-7 m in length. Stems cylindrical, 3-9 mm in diameter, producing abundant water) and caustic latex when wounded; internodes 8-13 cm long; nodes swollen, with an annular scar, producing 1 or 2 grayish roots; the lateral branches pendulous. I eaves earh deciduous, sessile, linear-lanceolate. chartaceous, 4-5 x 0.8 cm, the apex acute, the margins entire, not revolute; upper surface dull; lower surface dull. Inflorescence a pendulous axillary raceme with few or many flowers; bracts fleshy, broadly ovate, 4-12 mm long. Sepals green, open, free, oblong to oblanceolate, 3-4 x 0.9-1.2 cm. Petals similar to the sepals but slightly falcate, dorsally keeled and somewhat broader (1-1.3 cm); lip trilobate, greenish on the outer surface, red on the inner surface in the center, but turning white toward the margins, the center with a tuft of barbate and rigid hairs, the basal portion adnate to the column; column straight, almost cylindrical, 2.3-3.3 cm long. Fruits pendulous, fusiform or cylindrical, slightly recurved, changing from green to yellow-orange when ripe, 7-9 cm long, 9-13 mm in diameter.
Phenology - Flowering from April to June (Ackerman. 1995). collected in fruit in January. Status: Native, locally common.
Conservation Status - Native, locally common.