Luzon Vanda

Description

Vanda luzonica is a species of Liliopsida described by August Loher and Robert Allen Rolfe. Vanda luzonica belongs to the genus Vanda, and the family Orchidaceae. Vanda, abbreviated in the horticultural trade as V., is a genus in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. There are about 87 species, and the genus is commonly cultivated for the marketplace. This genus and its allies are considered to be among the most specifically adapted of all orchids within the Orchidaceae. The genus is highly prized in horticulture for its showy, fragrant, long-lasting, and intensely colorful flowers. Vanda species are widespread across East Asia, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea, with a few species extending into Queensland and some of the islands of the western Pacific. This genus is one of the five most horticulturally important orchid genera, because it has some of the most magnificent flowers to be found in the orchid family. This has contributed much to the work of hybridists producing flowers for the cut flower market. V. coerulea is one of the few botanical orchids which can produce varieties with blue flowers (actually a very bluish purple), a property much appreciated for producing interspecific and intergeneric hybrids. The color blue is rare among orchids, and only Thelymitra crinita, a terrestrial species from Australia, produces flowers that are truly "blue" among the orchids, the other being Aganisia cyanea, a lowland species from northern South America that is difficult to cultivate, but has metallic blue flowers. Both of these species, much like Vanda, also have a bluish-purple tint towards the inner petals of the flowers. Vanda dearei is one of the chief sources of yellow color in Vanda hybrids. The plants do not possess pseudobulbs, but do possess leathery, drought-resistant leaves. Almost all of the species in this genus are very large epiphytes found in disturbed areas in habitat and prefer very high light levels, the plants having large root systems. Some of these species have a monopodial vine-like growth habit, and the plants can quickly become quite massive. These plants prefer consistent conditions day-to-day in cultivation to avoid dropping their bottom leaves. The epiphytic species are best accommodated in large wooden baskets, bare rooted, which allows for the large aerial root systems.