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Vanda suavis; photograph desertnaturalist, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYdesertnaturalist, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Vanda suavis Lindl.

Orchidaceae · Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is. · listed by its genus as an orchid

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Vanda suavis Lindl.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, F.Muell., 1871.

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Vanda suavis, photograph Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFVanda suavis, photograph Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFVanda suavis, photograph Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFVanda suavis, photograph Óscar Sampedro, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFVanda suavis, photograph Geoff, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFVanda suavis, photograph Geoff, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.1°C
Record low 11.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,405mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, November to April (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Vanda in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphytic subshrub”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,660 mm of 3,451 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,451 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,660 mm of it November to April. Wettest month January at 594 mm, driest month August at 57 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,921 mm to 3,883 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,405 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,451 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.1 °C, the absolute minimum 11.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.9 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 14.3 °C to 19.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.0 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 74% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +479 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Vanda in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphytic subshrub”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Vanda suavis through the yearWarmest months September and October, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 15.9 °C; 3,451 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 29–43RH 64–74%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 16 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 23–2624 / 23–2624 / 23–2724 / 23–2724 / 23–2724 / 23–2624 / 22–2624 / 23–2726 / 24–2726 / 24–2825 / 23–2724 / 23–26
Night °C18 / 16–2118 / 16–2118 / 16–2118 / 16–2118 / 16–2117 / 15–2016 / 14–2016 / 14–2017 / 15–2018 / 16–2118 / 17–2218 / 17–22
Rain mm594 / 464–675518 / 443–580431 / 356–486290 / 235–326189 / 146–224129 / 102–157129 / 62–14857 / 37–6890 / 59–123197 / 139–246335 / 300–393492 / 371–555
DLI29 / 24–3229 / 25–3233 / 27–3533 / 28–3533 / 29–3632 / 28–3533 / 30–3637 / 33–4041 / 36–4343 / 34–4438 / 29–3931 / 26–33
RH %74 / 73–7574 / 72–7572 / 71–7471 / 68–7369 / 66–7269 / 65–7168 / 64–7066 / 62–6964 / 62–6966 / 63–7171 / 68–7373 / 72–75
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 16 grid cells holding the 22 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1957:5850 (-7.875, 112.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 16 distinct grid cells holding 22 of the 22 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1957:5850 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -8.00_112.500, lapse-corrected +479 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 947 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeJawa, Lesser Sunda Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-8.275, 115.167 · in the densest population, 15 records (60% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphytic subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 25 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 22 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 5 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 25 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Vanda suavis, photograph 1did not loadVanda suavis, photograph 2did not loadVanda suavis, photograph 3did not loadVanda suavis, photograph 4did not loadVanda suavis, photograph 5did not loadVanda suavis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Óscar Sampedro, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Geoff, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Trevesia sundaica Trevesia sundaica Snowflake Aralia Photo: CC BY, Abby HydeBulbophyllum biflorum Bulbophyllum biflorum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Paolo Co Thelypteris ferox Aspleniaceae Macodes petola Macodes petola Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Fathurrahman SidiqImpatiens platypetala Impatiens platypetala Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, smathichongDendrobium mutabile Dendrobium mutabile Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, ꦥꦤ꧀ꦗꦶꦒꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦶꦄꦏ꧀ꦧꦂ

Other Vanda 30 in the reference

Vanda alpina Vanda alpina Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiVanda ampullacea Vanda ampullacea Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Badlydrawnboy22Vanda bicolor Vanda bicolor Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGVanda brunnea Vanda brunnea Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, OrchiVanda celebica Vanda celebica Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Jason AlexanderVanda christensoniana Vanda christensoniana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Badlydrawnboy22Vanda coelestis Vanda coelestis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, ผู้สร้างสรรค์ผลงาน/ส่งข้อมูลเก็บในคลังข้…Vanda coerulea Vanda coerulea Blue orchid Photo: CC BY, JiguVanda coerulescens Vanda coerulescens Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, José Esquerre Vanda concolor Orchidaceae Vanda cristata Vanda cristata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossVanda curvifolia Vanda curvifolia Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, sunoochi from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan all 31 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Vanda tricolor var. suavis; Vanda tricolor subsp. suavis; Vanda tricolor var. formosa; Vanda tricolor var. superba. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFIPNIPOWO

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Lindl.
Native to
Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is.
Wild records
25 in range · 5 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7353213 is Vanda suavis F.Muell., 1871; Kew accepts Vanda suavis Lindl., and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Vanda suavis Lindl. (2783201), which GBIF files under Vanda tricolor var. suavis (Lindl.) Rchb.f. (6315782) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-224 read from GBIF's Vanda suavis Lindl. (2783201), which GBIF files under Vanda tricolor var. suavis (Lindl.) Rchb.f. (6315782)
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -8.00_112.500, lapse-corrected +479 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22not taken: the item that gives Vanda suavis as an alias, Q7914310, carries GBIF key 2783198, GBIF's record of another name; IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Vanda suavis Lindl. (no item's number)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Vanda suavis to Vanda tricolor
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 2 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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