It has creamy white fragrant flowers, and was first identified by botanist, Robert Allen Rolfe in 1918. Today, it is part of Floriculture emphasis in the island state.,[3] also conserved in the 'Dhanikhari Experimental Botanic Garden', Port Blair, by the Botanical Survey of India.[4]
Living collections of this taxon is also under ex situ conservation outside the islands at the Field Gene Bank of Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Trivandrum, India. This is a 'narrow endemic' rarely found in the interior evergreen forests of this archipelago. The flowers are typical creamy yellowish with purple coloured interior. There are differences in opinion among taxonomists about the specific status of the Andaman taxon. According to late Seidenfaden Vanilla andamanica Rolfe is very similar to the Thailand species Vanilla albida Blume.[5]
^Geoinformatics for tropical ecosystems, by P. S. Roy, Asian Association of Remote Sensing. Publisher:Working Group on Tropical Ecosystem Management, Asian Association of Remote Sensing, 2003. ISBN81-211-0370-3. Page 569.
^Vanilla andamanicaOrchids: status survey and conservation action plan, by Eric Hágsater, Vinciane Dumont, Alec M. Pridgeon, IUCN/SSC Orchid Specialist Group. Publisher IUCN, 1996. ISBN2-8317-0325-5. Page 92.
