Rachel Strohm

1142 days ago

One commonality amongst most orchids, and one shared by this species, is that V. planifolia is a ridiculous pain to grow in any volume. For one thing, this vanilla plant flowers only briefly, for a few hours, and pollination must occur at that time. Pollination itself is so difficult that it makes you wonder whether the plant has any interest in reproduction at all. It’s still not entirely clear how it gets pollinated in the wild. Generally it’s believed that a single type of small, stingless Mexican bee is responsible, and possibly some hummingbirds, but nobody’s really been been able to figure out how to get vanilla pollinated naturally in any farm-like setting.

How Did Madagascar Become the World's Biggest Producer of Vanilla?

atlasobscura.com

It’s pretty likely that there is exactly one product from Madagascar in your home right now—no more, no less.