Vanda bicolor - Bicolor Vanda

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.