Nestled in the misty highlands of East India, Myanmar, Thailand and North China lies a gorgeous orchid with sky blue flowers - the Vanda coerulea. First discovered in the Khasi hills of East India, it was later spotted in the hilly terrains of Burma and North Thailand. These small plants with tiny leaves typically grow on rough barks climbing upwards, thus exposing them completely to sunlight, rain and wind. Their juvenile leaves and lack of lichens, the slender stems growing on rough barks make them highly prone to desiccation. The most magnificent grow as tall as 910-1520 meters, however the cultivated plants in Thailand have thrived well at 340 meters in the natural conditions of Chiang Mai.
The Vanda coerulea is a medium to large sized, cool to warm growing, monopodial epiphyte that can reach 75-150 cm in length and up to 50 cm wide with very sturdy coriaceous, ligulate, distichous, conduplicate, obliquely tridentate apically leafed stems carrying leaves 8-25 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. The leaves are typically pale-green, with a deep velvety texture on the upper surface, having a brownish sheath on the underside and have unevenly split margins. The flowering leaves last for a few years.
This vanda species blooms in the late winter through spring with a 2' [60 cm] long-lasting, multi-flowered, pendent inflorescence arising from leafed matures stems with a few [to several] simultaneously open flowers that are highly variable in size, shape and color. Though commonly the petals on both sides are spread widely exposing the thick white lips striped with heavy dark blue lines. However they can be deep dark blue, white or even pink. Dark markings are not always present. The small lip has a typical white spotted throat with a very dark blue-black central vein and heavy dark blue-black mid-veins on a white background. The inner circular veins are often crisscrossed and as a result, the lower margin is ruffled facing forward.
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