Vanilla africana
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Vanilla africana is a species of vanilla ( Vanilla ) in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It grows as a climbing plant in tropical Africa.
description
Vanilla africana is an evergreen climber that reaches ten meters in length, and occasionally even more. The leaves are oblong-oval, rounded at the base and provided with a 0.5 centimeter long petiole, ending at the front with a short attached tip. They are five to 13 inches long and four to eight inches wide.
The inflorescence is simple or not very branched, in the lower area it has bracts that resemble small foliage leaves, further forward the bracts are smaller and reduced like scales. Pedicel and ovary together measure about four centimeters. The fragrant flowers are white with reddish markings on the lip . Sepals and petals are oval to lanceolate and measure 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters in length. The lip is about two centimeters long, three-lobed, on the lip there are four or five appendages pointing backwards. The side lobes of the lip are triangular and rounded, the middle lobe oval. The column is 1.2 to 2.5 centimeters long, curved, widened in front, it is fused with the lateral lobes of the lip over two thirds of its length.
distribution
Vanilla africana occurs in tropical western and central Africa, where it inhabits the rainforests from Liberia and Guinea in the west to the Congo in the southeast of its area.
Systematics and botanical history
Vanilla africana was first described by Lindley in 1862 . Vanilla africana var. Laurentiana and var. Gillettii , treated by Portères as varieties , are synonyms of Vanilla ramosa .
Within the genus Vanilla , Vanilla africana is classified in the subgenus Xanata and there in the Thethya section , which contains all species of the paleotropic species . Soto Arenas and Cribb state that Vanilla ramosa in particular is very similar. To the related species Vanilla acuminata , Vanilla cucullata and Vanilla heterolopha listed by Portères , they add Vanilla crenulata , Vanilla hallei and Vanilla zanzibarica .
literature
- Le Vanillier et la Vanille dans le Monde . In: Gilbert Bouriquet (ed.): Encyclopédie Biologique . tape XLVI . Paul Lechevalier, Paris 1954.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Roland Portères: Le Genre Vanilla et ses Espèces. In: Le Vanillier et la Vanille dans le Monde. Pp. 203-206.
- ↑ a b Miguel A. Soto Arenas, Phillip Cribb: A new infrageneric classification and synopsis of the genus Vanilla Plum. ex Mill. (Orchidaceae: Vanillinae) . In: Lankesteriana . tape 9 , no. 3 , 2010, p. 366-367 ( ucr.ac.cr [PDF]).
- ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Vanilla africana. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ In: Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.). Volume 6, 1862, p. 137.