Vanda coerulea

[PeterNL]

One of the varieties of Vanda coerulea in bloom now

[Ray]

If that’s truly the pure species, it’s a particularly nice one. I’m not trying to suggest it is not V. coerulea, but many of them have severely reflexes sepals.

[PeterNL]

This is a very true V. coerulea.
I have 6 different clones myself of V. coerulea.
This one tho, also has the twisting petals on some flowers. Some flowers have, others dont.
This clone has quite broad petals, preventing it to twist backwards because it is overlapping the sepals.
This is the result of years of improving the flowershape of this Vanda.

[Roberta]

That is a particularly beautiful cultivar.

[PeterNL]

Thank you Roberta[IMG][/IMG],
It is a nice clone, but I have even better V. coerulea.

[Ray]

Indeed!

[JungleJo]

Nice vanda forest!

[Fairorchids]

Peter,

I hate to tell you this, but neither of those plants are true species plants.

In Thailand, like in Japan, the species concept is somewhat fluid. If it looks like 'X', they call it 'X' (same as the Japanese do with Neofinetia falcata and it's hybrids).

There are two key identifiers for V. coerulea:
#1: The petals twist 180 degrees, and present the backside to the viewer.
#2: The leaves are very short, so the plant is very slender (rarely more than max 30 cm across).

I have held this view for years. About 4 months ago, I had an opportunity to discuss it with Dr. M. Motes, who confirmed my suspicions.
Any blue Vanda with strong tesselation, and non-twisting petals, is with 100% certainty a hybrid.

According to Dr. Motes, this has been confirmed by DNA analysis done somewhere in Asia (he did not give me the nationality of the researcher).

It is difficult to point fingers at anyone for this situation:

• In Thailand, a blue Vanda is a blue Vanda.
• And, unless someone has been involved with orchids as long as I have, most traders/resellers simply don't know any better.

I was doing a webinar for the AOS last Saturday. Two of the slides in my presentation were these:

[WaterWitchin]

Whether species or hybrid, they're gorgeous... especially that second one. What a lovely color.

[PeterNL]

Fairorchids:
1: the Vanda plant carrying these flowers is not even reaching 25cm in width.
2: Like i said before, some petals of the flowers on the stem DO twist all around. This is typical for V. coerulea. But it is not true ALL V. coerulea selections do this nowadays with all flowers. (Even Motes wrote this in his book long ago already) Also the sharp 'hooks' at the lip are present.

Some Thai growers did and do a lot of effort to achieve the US ideal for non twisting petals and flat ,broad and round flowershapes. Preferably even without 'windows'. They are working on beautiful selections of V. coerulea and V. sanderiana. I have spent a lot of time for many years in Thailand to see how they work at these Vandas.

I am not sure about the situation in USA.
Also in the USA are an enormous amount of hybrids created.
However, in Europe we still do have species Vanda.
Many even. Of all kinds.
In my greenhouse i have 6 different clones of V. coerulea. From Wild types to the select types.
Also 7 different clones of V. sanderiana.
The same selection applies here.

Im growing Vanda and Classic Cattleya for over 40 years.
I am an international VKC judge of Orchids in Europe.

I do not agree with your statement calling my Vanda in this topic a hybrid. Because it is not.
But feel free to think whatever you like.

I do understand that over the last years many many hybrids are created and spread all over the world.
I only wish that the species will not be lost in the hybrid jungle. It is what we at least try to keep an eye on in Europe.