Vanda Jones ex R.Br.,
Edwards's Bot. Reg. (1820) t. 506
Monopodial epiphytic or sometimes terrestrial plants. Stem elongated. Leaves many, distichous, sheathing at the base, glabrous, deciduous, duplicate, leathery. Inflorescence lateral, a few- to several-flowered raceme. Flowers medium-sized to large, resupinate, showy. Sepals free. Petals free, similar to the dorsal sepal. Lip not mobile, spurred, the spur inside without callosities. Column-foot very short. Pollinia 2, cleft, solid, caudicles absent, stipe present, about as long as the diameter of the pollinia, viscidium present.
Distribution
Tropical Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia; about 45 species.
Distribution in the Philippines
Batanes, Calayan, Luzon (Ilocos Norte, Abra, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Benguet, Cagayan, Sierra Madre Mts., Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon, Aurora, Tayabas), Mindoro, Culion, Palawan, Panay (Capiz), Negros, Comiran, Mindanao (Zamboanga, Bukidnon, Surigao, Davao, Cotabato), Sulu, Mangsi; 9 species.
Habitat
Epiphytes in lowland and montane evergreen and deciduous forest. Occasionally terrestrial in open vegetation.
Notes
Horticulturally, Vanda is one of the most important genera in Southeast Asia, and numerous hybrids have been raised in which Vanda species are implicated. It is a genus of robust monopodial plants with strap-shaped leathery leaves, of which the tips often look as if they have been bitten off by a rodent. Many of the showier species are almost extinct in the wild due to overcollecting. Perhaps the most famous orchid of the Philippines is Vanda sanderiana, locally known as Waling-Waling. This is sometimes considered to belong to a separate genus, Euanthe, but that is hardly justified, as the supposed differences from Vanda are in minor characters only.