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T
HE GENUS VANDOPSIS
includes about four species
of very robust, monopodial
plants with showy, spotted flowers.
It is distributed from the east
Himalayas to southeast Asia,
including southern China, to Papua
New Guinea (Govaerts et al 2007).
Two species are found in southeast
Asia: Vandopsis gigantea (Lindl.)
Pfitzer and Vandopsis lissochiloides
(Gaudich.) Pfitzer. Only the latter
species occurs in the Philippines, and
is also known from Thailand, Laos,
Sulawesi, Maluku, Lesser Sunda
Islands, and Papua New Guinea.
In the Philippines, Vandopsis
lissochiloides has been recorded from
the large main island of Luzon (Rizal,
Laguna, Sorsogon), Palawan, Panay,
Negros, Leyte, and Mindanao
(Zamboanga, Bukidnon, Davao), and
Sigaboy Island (Agoo et al 2003).
Although widespread, the species is
rather uncommon and is very rarely
seen in cultivation, much less in the
wild. No colour photo of Philippine
material of this beautiful species is
known to have been published in
recent years. It is not featured in
Fessel & Balzer’s (1999) A Selection of
Native Orchids of the Philippines or in
the excellent book by Cootes (2001),
The Orchids of the Philippines. The
photo in Flora Malesiana: Orchids of the
Philippines, Vol 1 by Agoo et al (2003),
on the other hand, is from Sulawesi.
There is, however, a black and white
image in Philippine Orchids by Davis
& Steiner (1952) and a colour image
in Orchidiana Philippiniana by
Valmayor (1984). Here, I describe
and provide colour photographs of
Vandopsis lissochiloides, in situ, as it
occurs wild in its natural habitat on
Mindanao Island in the Philippines.
Finding Vandopsis lissochiloides
in Mindanao
I was in Mindanao recently searching
for relict dipterocarp trees and palms
in the remaining fragments of lowland
forest on the valley bottoms, along
streams at about 420m altitude. While
there I found, with great and pleasant
surprise, this very beautiful orchid in
flower in the adjacent grassland and
thicket. In this isolated area, on a
slope of less than a hectare, near a
gully, with grasses, sedges and small
trees, I found more than 100
individuals of both juvenile and mature
plants in flower. In another grassy
area, also near a small gully and close
to a dirt road, fewer than 10, mostly
young, individual plants were seen.
This species is terrestrial or
lithophytic, occurring singly or in
colonies. It prefers rocky or gravelly
soil, or bare rocks, among grasses,
beneath small trees, near gullies, or
on gentle slopes in partial shade, or
in open, full sunlight.
The habitat where this orchid lives
can be extremely dry for at least three
months of the year, between March
and May, the so-called hot dry season,
when there is little or usually no rain
at all, and the temperature averages
28°C, but can reach up to 33°C or
March/April 2008
86
ORCHID SPECIES
Vandopsis lissochiloides
EDWINO S FERNANDO describes Vandopsis lissochiloides as it
occurs wild on Mindanao Island in the Philippines
A group of juvenile
Vandopsis lissochiloides
plants growing near a small gully
A solitary
Vandopsis lissochiloides
in its natural
habitat growing with grasses and small trees
even slightly higher. The cool dry
season runs from December to
February (average 25°C). The rest of
the year is the wet season when the
mean monthly rainfall, in this
particular area, is about 200mm.
In the dry season the habitat can
also occasionally be subjected to
fire, particularly if it is within an area
managed primarily for grazing.
The wild populations of Vandopsis
lissochiloides in Mindanao remain
seriously threatened by conversion
of its natural habitats into agricultural
land for pineapple, banana or corn
plantations, or livestock production,
and potentially also by overzealous
and indiscriminate collectors. Details
of the localities of this species have
been purposely masked to help protect
the remaining wild populations.
Description
The plants I have seen in the wild are
large and very robust with stems up to
5cm in diameter (including sheathing
leaf bases), and grow up to 1.5–2m tall,
often branching at or near the base, or
along the lower half of the stem. Leaves
distichous, thick: unequally bilobed at
the tips, c30–50cm long and up to
5.5cm wide. Inflorescences upright or
arching, unbranched, 1.5m or longer,
up to 1.5cm thick, 2–4 inflorescences
may be present on a plant. Flowers
laxly arranged in a spiral along the
inflorescence axis, 1.5–4cm apart,
those at the distal end tending to be
more closely set, with as many as 20
open flowers and buds per inflorescence,
opening sequentially from the base.
Flowers up to 6cm wide with rather
thick and rigid floral parts, each with a
striated and twisted pedicel 3
x 0.5cm.
Flowers a striking deep yellow or
orange colour with purplish or maroon
spots. Newly opened flowers tend to
be more orange in colour, older ones
becoming yellowish; the back surface
is characteristically purple or light
March/April 2008
87
Orchid Review
The
➤
The brightly coloured flowers
of
Vandopsis lissochiloides
Photography: Edwino S Fernando
purple, which fades into yellow on
aging and senescence. Lip purple,
paler or whitish proximally, curved
near the middle, with a pointed tip.
Capsule narrowly obovoid, angular,
upright, c1.5
x 9–11.5cm, dehiscing
from the mid-section with the basal
and apical ends remaining attached
to each other, c2–4 capsules may
develop on the inflorescence axis.
Cultivation
Although rare in cultivation, I saw
Vandopsis lissochiloides growing well in a
nearby village, planted directly in the
ground in full sun as a garden plant.
This generally has to be on a slope or
in an area with good drainage. It can
even be planted in a large clay pot
with loose, rocky soil, in full sun with
a temperature of at least 25°C. It
appears to be easy to grow and is also
said to be readily propagated by stem
cuttings, like most species of Vanda.
Plants respond well to fertilisation
often setting capsules, and they
flower throughout the year. ■
EDWINO S FERNANDO is Professor
of Forest Botany, University of the
Philippines. He has written mostly on
palms and forest trees, and has a keen
interest in native Philippine orchids.
March/April 2008
88
ORCHID SPECIES
Agoo, EMG, Schuiteman A, & de
Vogel EF (2003)
Flora Malesiana:
Orchids of the Philippines, Vol 1,
Illustrated Checklist and Genera.
ETI/
National Herbarium of the Netherlands
Cootes, JE (2001)
The Orchids of the
Philippines.
Times Editions, Singapore
Davis, RS & Steiner ML (1952)
Philippine Orchids.
The William
Frederick Press, New York
Fessel, HH & Balzer P (1999)
A Selection of Native Orchids of the
Philippines.
Times Editions, Singapore
Govaerts, R, Campacci MA,
Holland Baptista D, Cribb P,
George A, Kreuz K, & Wood J
(2007)
World Checklist of
Orchidaceae.
Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew. Accessed 13 September 2007
www.kew.org/wcsp
Valmayor, HL (1984)
Orchidiana
Philippiniana, Vols I & II.
Eugenio
Lopez Foundation, Inc., Manila
REFERENCES
The author would like to thank Jim
Cootes for his help with the literature.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Vandopsis lissochiloides
in cultivation in a village
garden, planted in the ground, in full sun
The reverse of
Vandopsis lissochiloides
flowers showing the characteristic purple colour