Plant · P-485

Vanilla

Vanilla planifolia

Vanilla is a climbing orchid whose cured seed pods are the source of natural vanilla, used to flavor ice cream, baked goods, perfume and soap. Each flower opens for a single morning and closes for good, so pollination has been done entirely by hand outside its native Central America since the 1830s, because no natural pollinator exists there. It cannot survive outdoors anywhere winter brings frost, and even in the right climate it wants shade, high humidity and a living tree or shade structure to climb - after which a pod still takes eight or nine months to ripen and several more to cure before it tastes like anything.