Vanilla planifolia 'variegata' (trellis) - Real vanilla plant (young plant)

Vanilla planifolia – an exotic gem

Vanilla is now as much a staple in our kitchens as cinnamon and sugar. Yet it has come a long way. It made its way from Mexico to Europe and back to the tropics before becoming established all over the world.

The genus Vanilla belongs to the orchid family; botanists currently recognize 113 species belonging to this genus. They are found in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific Islands as well as on the American, African and Asian continents, although most were originally native to South America. They grow as creeping or climbing plants, on trees (epiphytic), on rocks (lithophytic) or in the ground (terrestrial), and their shoots can grow to a few centimetres or even several metres in length. The most famous species, sweet vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), has been prized for centuries for its aromatic vanilla pods, but orchid enthusiasts also love it as a special decorative feature for their living rooms.

From the jungle to the kitchen – this wild jungle dweller becomes a prized spice

The vanilla we are familiar with, Vanilla planifolia, is a Mexican climbing plant which the ancient Aztecs already knew as the ‘black flower’ ‘Tlilchoxchitl’ – a delicious spice plant. At that time, consumption of this precious plant was reserved for kings, and it was to be a long time before vanilla became a spice available to everyone. Although the Aztecs tried to keep vanilla as their culinary secret, the Spanish discovered it during their colonial expeditions at the beginning of the 16th century. Thus, alongside important crops such as the potato, the tomato and the pumpkin, they also brought vanilla back to Europe in considerable quantities.

And there it became popular; traders sold it at high prices to the wealthy and the nobility. In princely and royal courts, it became a fashionable spice. For a long time, the Spanish held a monopoly on vanilla. It attained enormous economic value, which is why the Spanish made its export a capital offence. But it was not until about a hundred years later, at the beginning of the 17th century, that the English came up with the idea of using live, exported plants to conduct research into vanilla cultivation, with a view to making production more economical. The French, in turn, introduced it to tropical regions, specifically to their colony of Réunion, with the aim of turning it into a plantation crop. However, their attempts proved unsuccessful, as the natural pollinators of vanilla – the species of bees and hummingbirds native to Mexico – were absent. It was not until 1841 that Edmond Albius, a slave, discovered that vanilla plants produce their valuable seed pods when pollinated by hand. A brilliant method that is still practised on plantations today and which earned Edmond Albius his freedom.

As a result, vanilla was produced on a massive scale on tropical plantations and shipped to Europe. Seven years after the secret of pollination was revealed, merchant ships brought fifty kilograms of vanilla to Europe; just under forty years later, the figure had risen to over two tonnes.
Yet 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 whilst the planters grew rich, nature and the local population suffered as a result of the Europeans’ ‘vanilla fever’. Workers were fobbed off with starvation wages, and in the Seychelles, plantation owners cleared entire forests to make way for vanilla cultivation, leaving the soil exposed to the elements.

However, the boom in the vanilla trade was abruptly halted by pest infestations. In particular, the fungal disease Calospora vanillae caused severe losses on plantations in Java, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. It was not until after the Second World War that the fungus was finally brought under control using chemical pesticides.

In the mid-19th century, a groundbreaking discovery caused the value of real vanilla to plummet and brought the colonialists’ capitalist frenzy to a halt. In 1874, whilst searching for an artificial form of glucose, two PhD students at Humboldt University in Berlin discovered vanillin, a chemically produced vanilla flavouring. However, it was not until the turn of the century that production had been optimised to the point where it could be manufactured cost-effectively. Today, it is extracted from lignin, a by-product of the paper industry, and is used in large quantities in the food, cosmetics and perfume industries.

Yet despite competition from test-tube varieties, Vanilla planifolia remains an important cultivated plant. Up to 2,000 tonnes of vanilla pods are exported from Madagascar every year. And it is now popular not only as a crop but also, like its relatives in the orchid family, 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 familiar with orchid care will have no trouble cultivating Vanilla planifolia, as its requirements are similar to those of other orchid species.

To ensure the plant thrives, it is crucial that it has been grown in our latitudes and not under completely different environmental conditions in the tropics, from where many retailers import them in large quantities. You should therefore only buy Vanilla planifolia from an orchid grower, not from a DIY store.
Vanilla planifolia requires either a planter with a trellis for it to climb up, or a hanging basket in which its shoots have plenty of space to spread outwards. It prefers a semi-shaded to shaded but bright spot and must not be exposed to direct sunlight in summer. This tropical plant thrives all year round in warm temperatures of at least 18 degrees Celsius and high humidity of around 80 per cent. It therefore thrives better in a greenhouse than in the living room. When growing it on a windowsill, you must mist it regularly or place it in a window tray filled with water, which increases local humidity as it evaporates. It should be thoroughly watered every seven days with lime-free tap water or rainwater. Incidentally, it hates waterlogged soil just as much as its fellow orchids. To ensure the Vanilla grows vigorously in summer, orchid fertiliser should be added to the water about once a month. No fertiliser is needed 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 quite so vigorously away from its natural environment. However, with optimal care, you can expect it to grow up to 1.5 metres in length per year.

In theory, it is possible to harvest vanilla pods from your own plants. They are harvested whilst still unripe, then dried and fermented, during which they develop their dark brown colour and their characteristic aroma, vanillin. However, growing plants that produce pods is an extremely labour-intensive undertaking. It requires years of cultivation in a greenhouse with very high humidity and tropical temperatures, as well as manual pollination of the flowers and harvesting at exactly the right time.

But whether as a houseplant or a pretty window-sill resident: in your living room, Vanilla planifolia is an exotic collector’s item that you will enjoy for years to come.

Care tips & information on the genus