Plant of the week - Vanda tricolor

Date posted: 07 April 2015

The striking Vanda tricolor is native to Java and Laos and it produces 5-7.5cm flowers which are arranged on a large flower spike, the petals are spotted and the lip of the flower is pink to purple in colour.

One of the most amazing attributes of this plant is the perfume that the flower exudes. It has a lovely aroma of caramel and is certainly noticeable when entering the glasshouse each morning.

This plant flowers regularly at the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden nursery and as soon as one flower spike ends there are always more coming into flower with each flower spike lasting at least 6 weeks. The plant is epiphytic in its natural habitat and produces long thick aerial roots which it uses to attach to its host. It is one of our favourite orchids that is grown and we always look forward to it flowering.