Vanilla planifolia 'variegata' (hanging basket plant) - Real vanilla plant

Vanilla planifolia - exotic jewel

Today, vanilla is as established in our cuisine as cinnamon and sugar. But it has come a long way. It found its way from Mexico to Europe and back to the tropics until it became native to the whole world.

The genus Vanilla belongs to the orchid family, and botanists now recognise 113 species belonging to this genus. They are widespread in tropical and subtropical areas on the Pacific islands as well as the American, African and Asian continents, although most were originally native to South America. They grow creeping or climbing, on trees (epiphytic), on rocks (lithophytic) or in the ground (terrestrial) and their shoots grow to a few centimetres or even several metres long. The most famous species, the spice vanilla Vanilla planifolia, has been popular for centuries for its aromatic vanilla pods, but orchid fans also love it as a special piece of jewellery for the living room at home.

From the jungle to the kitchen - the wild jungle inhabitant becomes a valuable spice

The spice vanilla, Vanilla planifolia, is a Mexican climbing plant that was already known to the ancient Aztecs as the black flower "Tlilchoxchitl", a flavoursome spice plant. At that time, the consumption of this noble plant was reserved for kings and it was a long time before vanilla became a spice for everyone. Although the Aztecs tried to keep vanilla their culinary secret, the Spanish discovered it on their colonial expeditions at the beginning of the 16th century. In addition to important crops such as the potato, tomato and pumpkin, they also brought considerable quantities of vanilla back to Europe.

And it became popular there, with traders selling it at high prices to rich and noble people. It became a fashionable spice in princely and royal houses. For a long time, the Spanish had a monopoly on vanilla. It had an enormous economic value, which is why the Spanish made its export punishable by death. However, it was not until around a hundred years later, at the beginning of the 17th century, that the English came up with the idea of using living exported plants to research the cultivation of vanilla in order to make production more economical. The French in turn brought it to tropical climes, to their colony of Réunion, to turn it into a plantation crop. However, their attempts were unsuccessful as the natural pollinators of vanilla, the bee and hummingbird species native to Mexico, were absent. It was not until 1841 that Edmond Albius, a slave, discovered that vanilla plants form their valuable seed pods when they are pollinated by hand. A brilliant method that is still practised on plantations today and gave Edmond Albius his freedom.

As a result, vanilla was mass produced on tropical plantations and shipped to Europe. Seven years after the revelation of the pollination secret, merchant ships brought fifty kilograms of vanilla to Europe; almost forty years later, it was over two tonnes.
But even plantation cultivation could not make vanilla affordable for everyone; a pound of the precious spice still cost as much as a labourer earned in a week. And while the planters became rich, nature and the indigenous population suffered from the vanilla fever of the Europeans. The labourers were fobbed off with starvation wages and in the Seychelles, plantation owners cleared entire forests to make room for vanilla cultivation, so that the soil was eroded by the weather.

However, the boom in the vanilla business was brought to an abrupt halt by pests. In particular, the fungal disease Calospora vanillae caused severe losses on the plantations in Java, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. It would take until after the Second World War before the fungus could be stopped with chemical pesticides.

In the middle of the 19th century, a groundbreaking discovery caused the value of real vanilla to plummet and the colonialists' capitalist delusions to collapse. While searching for an artificial dextrose, two doctoral students at Humboldt University in Berlin discovered vanillin, a chemically produced vanilla flavouring, in 1874. However, it took until the turn of the century for production to be optimised so that it could be manufactured cost-effectively. Today, it is obtained from lignin, a by-product of the paper industry, and is used in large quantities in the food, cosmetics and perfume industries.

But despite the competition from the test tube, Vanilla planifolia remains an important cultivated plant. Today, up to 2000 tonnes of vanilla pods are exported from Madagascar every year. And it is no longer just a useful plant but, like its siblings in the orchid family, is also popular as a houseplant.

From the kitchen to the windowsill - the right care

With Vanilla planifolia, anyone can bring an exotic rarity into their home. Anyone who is familiar with orchid care will have no problems cultivating a Vanilla planifolia, as it is similar in its requirements to other orchid species.

In order for the plant to thrive, it is crucial that it was grown in our latitudes and not under completely different environmental conditions in the tropics, from where many dealers import them in bulk. You should therefore only buy a Vanilla planifolia from an orchid grower and not from a DIY store.
Vanilla planifolia needs either a plant pot with a trellis on which it can grow upwards, or a hanging basket in which its shoots have plenty of room to spread downwards. It prefers a semi-shady to shady but bright location and must not be exposed to direct sunlight in summer. The tropical plant loves warm temperatures of at least 18 degrees Celsius all year round and a high humidity of around 80 per cent. It therefore thrives better in a greenhouse than in the living room. When growing on a windowsill, it should be sprayed regularly or placed in a window bowl filled with water, which increases the humidity locally when it evaporates. It needs to be watered thoroughly every seven days with lime-free tap water or rainwater. Incidentally, it hates waterlogging just as much as its other orchid sisters. To ensure that the Vanilla grows vigorously in summer, orchid fertiliser should be added to the water about once a month. It does not need fertiliser in winter.
The shoots of Vanilla planifolia can grow up to 15 metres long in the jungle, but don't be disappointed if it doesn't thrive as well far from its natural habitat. However, with optimal care, you can expect up to 1.5 metres growth in length per year.

Theoretically, it is possible to harvest vanilla pods from your own plants. They are harvested unripe, dried and fermented, during which they develop their black-brown colour and their characteristic aroma, vanillin. However, the cultivation of pod-bearing plants is an extremely labour-intensive project. It requires years of cultivation in a greenhouse at high humidity and tropical temperatures, manual pollination of the flowers and harvesting at exactly the right time.

But whether as a cultivated plant or as a pretty windowsill plant, Vanilla planifolia is an exotic collector's item in your living room that you will enjoy for years to come.

Care tips & information on the genus