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Vanilla walkeriae
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Family:
ORCHIDACEAE
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Citation: Vanilla walkeriae Wight, Ic. t. 932. 1843-45; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 90. 1890; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 1451(1015). 1928; Subram., Fl. Thenmala Div. 364. 1995; Muktesh, Epiphytic Fl. Western Ghats 127. 1998; Sathish & Manilal, Orchid Memories 229. 2004.
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Malayalam Name(s):
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Scandent, non pseudo-bulbous, apparently leafless epiphytes, climbing by means of aerial roots; stems thick, terete, deeply channelled. Leaves arrested, 1.2-3.7 cm long, lanceolate, acuminate. Flowers white, 6.8 cm broad, in very stout, many-flowered, 13-15 cm long racemes; floral bracts 8 x 5 mm, broadly ovate, subacute, 5-7-veined. Sepals 4.5 x 1.6-1.7 cm, broadly oblanceolate, subacute, 13-15-veined. Petals as long as sepals, 2.8 cm broad, spathulately obovate, 15-veined, margins wavy. Lip erect, 3.7-4.3 x 2.4 cm, obovate-oblong, undulate, crenate, inserted at the base of the column, embracing and fusing with it by a convolute claw and dilating into a trumpet-shaped limb with recurved margins, lateral lobes absent, apex triangular, acute; disc with 2 broad, papillate ridges from the base to beyond the middle; column long, narrow, 1.7 cm long, 2.5 mm broad. Anther terminal, incumbent, mitriform, 2-loculed, 2.5 mm long; pollinia 4, free without strape or glands, 1.7 x 0.7 mm. Ovary with pedicels 4.1 cm long. Fruit a very slender capsule, 12.5-15 cm long.
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Habit:
Climber
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Flowering & Fruiting:
December-August
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District(s):
Kollam
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Evergreen forests
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Distribution:
South India and Sri Lanka
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
Yes
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
White
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Monocotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
No
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
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Localities:
Vandalodu
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