Vanda falcata
Vanda falcata is a small growing epiphytic orchid from Japan, Korea and China with fragrant white flowers. In Japan if is called 'fuuran' or wind orchid and its natural distribution stretches from
the most southerly islands in the Ryuku chain northwards to the middle of Honshu. In habitat it can experience significant frost through the winter although it will also
have to cope with high summer temperatures and a monsoon climate.
The species has been known and recorded in Japan since the 1600's but it didn't really become popular until the Shogun Tokugawa Ienari began to cultivate it.
He used his feudal and political power to gather together naturally occurring variations of the typical species and was probably responsible for the name changing to
'fuukiran' or "orchid of the rich and noble".
Traditionally fuukiran are cultivated in Japan in balls of sphagnum moss which helps to hold moisture and keep the plants from desiccating. Exhibitions are held
that emphasise the balance between the form of the plant and the artistry of the pot in producing a display. The cultivation of fuukiran in western countries is more recent.
Some growers follow the Japanese tradition of cultivation, others treat them as they would the tropical Vanda species, growing in a very open orchid compost or in
a small hanging basket.
Although Vanda orchids in the west are grown for their flowers, fuukiran are cultivated inm Japan primarily for their foliage. Variegated selections are highly valued
as are dwarf growing forms, those with sheaves of upward growing leaves and forms with twisted foliage.
Plants are also valued for the shape of the tsuke (the abscission zone on the leaf), the colour of the "trunk" region of the fan of foliage, and the colour
of the tips of the growing roots which can vary from brown through green to ruby red.
The typical plant found in the wild has pure white flowers but selections have been made with greenish sepals and petals, and there are forms with yellow and pink tinted flowers.
Peloric flowers with three spurs are also highly valued.
In the last few decades the cultivation of fuukiran has really taken off in South Korea and they have brought technology to bear on the production of new varieties. Sterile culture of seedlings
has resulted in the production of large numbers of plants and the discovery of variegated selections has increased massively. The South Koreans are also breeding for enhanced cololur
and interesting shape of the flowers, both by selection of the species and by hybridisation.
Both Japan and South Korea maintain registers of "varieties" which have defined characteristics but might be propagated by seed and fall within an envelope of variability.
Some variation in the appearance of seedlings is to be expected. Plants will usually divide freely as they grow and although this gives a slower rate of increase
there are some "varieties" that can only be reliably increased in this way. South Korean growers are moving towards naming plants in a way that is closer to the system
used for other orchids and are starting to use micropropagation techniques to make selected modern clones available more readily.
In recent years two new species of Vanda from China have been named that are closely allied to V. falcata.
V. richardsiana is distinguished by its shorter spur that hangs straight down from the flower.
It is occasionally seen in cultivation.
Vanda xichangensis has a very short spur and from reports it seems to occur in mixed populations with V. richardsiana.
It is hardly known in cultivation.
References:
The Orchid Digest - Fuukiran, the living antique by Jason Fischer, 2006
Flora of China online, http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/
H. Matsuoka, Fukiran Basics, https://neofinetia.web.fc2.com/#