The name "Vanda" is derived from the Sanskrit name वन्दाका for the species Vanda
tessellata. It is a small sized orchid growing on trees, with a leafy stem enveloped almost completely
by leaf sheaths and each carrying oblong, curved leaves, which are somewhat twisted in the middle,
obliquely bilobed at tip, each lobe 3-toothed. The plant blooms in the winter and spring on a hairless,
3-16 cm long, laxly 3 to 6 flowered inflorescence in leaf-axils, with triangular floral bracts. It has
flowers which are brownish with darker, checkered marking, lilac at the throat.
Flowers are 4-5 cm across; sepals and petals decorated, yellowish-brown inside, violet externally,
lip violet and gold, spur white; flower-stalk and ovary slender, 4.8 cm long. Dorsal sepal obovate-spoon-shaped,
tip rounded, margins wavy, decorated behind, 2-2.1 x 1-1.1cm; lateral sepals similar, spreading,
2-3-2.4 x 1.3-1.4 cm. Petals are narrowly obovate-spoon-shaped, rounded, margins wavy, decorated
behind, 1.7-1. x 0.7-0.9 cm. Lip is 3-lobed, spurred, 1.5 x 0.6 cm; laterals lobes broadly rounded to ovate,
nearly fused with the column base; mid-lobe internally. Column is round, 6 x 3.5 mm; anther cap flat,
triangular, 3 x 2 mm. Bicolor Vanda is found in eastern Himalayas, Bhutan and Myanmar in open forests
and on riverbanks at elevations 700 to 2000 m. Flowering: March-May.
Identification credit: Pankaj Kumar
Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.
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The flower labeled Bicolor Vanda is ...