Blue orchid

Description

Vanda coerulea, commonly known as blue orchid, blue vanda or autumn lady's tresses, is a species of orchid found Northeast India with its range extending to China (southern Yunnan). It is known as kwaklei in Manipuri and vandaar in Sanskrit. It has bluish purple flowers (Thelymitra crinita is the only orchid that has true blue flowers) which are very long lasting compared to other orchids. The plant bears up to 20 to 30 spikes. The juice of flower is used as eye drops against glaucoma, cataract and blindness.Active ingredients of Vanda coerulea may fight against the visible signs of ageing skin. Vanda, abbreviated in the horticultural trade as V., is a genus in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. There are about 87 species, and the genus is commonly cultivated for the marketplace. This genus and its allies are considered to be among the most specifically adapted of all orchids within the Orchidaceae. The genus is highly prized in horticulture for its showy, fragrant, long-lasting, and intensely colorful flowers. Vanda species are widespread across East Asia, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea, with a few species extending into Queensland and some of the islands of the western Pacific. This genus is one of the five most horticulturally important orchid genera, because it has some of the most magnificent flowers to be found in the orchid family. This has contributed much to the work of hybridists producing flowers for the cut flower market. V. coerulea is one of the few botanical orchids which can produce varieties with blue flowers (actually a very bluish purple), a property much appreciated for producing interspecific and intergeneric hybrids. The color blue is rare among orchids, and only Thelymitra crinita, a terrestrial species from Australia, produces flowers that are truly "blue" among the orchids, the other being Aganisia cyanea, a lowland species from northern South America that is difficult to cultivate, but has metallic blue flowers. Both of these species, much like Vanda, also have a bluish-purple tint towards the inner petals of the flowers.