Confused about vanda names
 

Hello,

Could anyone please tell me if:

vanda flavobrunnea = vanda pumila = trudelia pumila

and

vanda testacea = vanda parviflora

Or they are all different species?

Thank you so much.

THe RHS gives vanda flavobrunnea = vanda pumila

and

vanda testacea = vanda parviflora

I do not know about trudelia pumila. This is not mentioned on the RHS site

The answers are:

Vanda flavobrunnea = Trudelia pumila = Vanda pumila

Vanda testacea = Vanda parviflora

If you're asking which is the current accepted name...

Vanda parviflora

For the other one, I believe it's now Vanda pumila again.

At one point it was named V. pumila, then got changed to Trudelia pumila, then apparently back again to V. pumila.

Thank you for the info.
I didn't know they can change it back and forth.
I looked at RHS and they list v. flavobrunnea as natural hybrid with synonym pumila. Who are the parents? Is one of them v.brunnea?

To my understanding V. pumila is a species, not a natural hybrid.

There may be another Vanda that goes by V. flavobrunnea, this is not an uncommon problem in taxonomy.

Don't be surprised to find man-made hybrids with species-like names too. It used to happen quite often during a period in time. I believe that it has since stopped as people may have started getting plants confused.

This is particularly why I tend to be a stickler with the proper way to write a species name and a hybrid's name.

It has happened before where people asked about a particular plant thinking that it's a species, but when in reality it was a hybrid that was named like a species.

These problems often make finding proper information about them more difficult.

Thank you Philip.
I started to look at this because I saw exactly same looking plant under name v. testacea from one vendor website and under name v. parviflora from another.

Vanda parviflora is a variety of Vanda testacea., and should probably be listed as Vanda testacea var. parviflora.

Vanda pumila = Trudelia pumila

Vanda flavobrunnea is considered an unplaced name. Since there are no known specimens, it is impossible to determine whether or not it's the same as the yellow & brown form of Vanda pumila. It has also been suggested that Vanda flavobrunnea may have been a naturally occurring hybrid.