Summary• Occurrence of endopolyploidy in somatic tissues of the hybrid orchid Vanda Miss Joaquim ( Vanda hookeriana × Vanda teres ) was investigated with respect to tissue type and developmental stage. Effects of naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) on endopolyploidy during embryo development were also studied.• For the study of endopolyploidy, flow cytometric analysis was employed to determine nuclear DNA content of cells of somatic tissues.• Multiploid cells were observed in leaves, roots and column, but not in shoot apex, stem, perianth and pedicel. Furthermore, differential distribution of multiploid cells was found among different parts of leaves and roots. The degree of endopolyploidy in embryos increased with development. NAA was shown to induce endoreduplication in germinating embryos to a much larger extent than GA 3 .• The pattern of endopolyploidy was characteristic of tissue type and developmental stage. The implications of endopolyploidy during differentiation and development, as well as the relevance of endopolyploidy to somaclonal variation, are discussed.