Vanilla Plum. ex Miller
凡尼蘭屬
Semiepiphytic plants with climbing stems to several meters, bearing leaf and root at each node. Leaves usually large and fleshy, base not sheathing. Inflorescences axillary, with few to many racemose flowers. Flowers usually large, with an abscission layer between ovary and perianth; sepals and petals subequal, free and spreading; lip with basal margins joined to sides of column, upper part widened and more or less 3-lobed, often with hairy or brush-like appendages on disc; column slender, slightly curved near top; anther suberect, tilt downwards on front of column; pollinia 2, granular, soft, often cleft, without caudicle or viscidium; stigma entire, slit-like under broad rostellum. Fruits elongate cylindrical, fleshy, often indehiscent. Seeds rather large, with hard coats, wingless.
About 65 Species, throughout tropical regions. One species in Taiwan.
