Vanilla planifolia, Orchid of the Month, August 2017

The cured and dried seed capsule of the vanilla orchid, whole and chopped

Only a single orchid of the approximately 28,000 known species is widely grown for food - the famous vanilla orchid Vanilla planifolia. More about the food later, for now the plant. The Vanilla genus is one of the earliest diverging branches of the orchid family and their growth habit is unusual, though the flowers are immediately recognizable as orchids, with a lip and a column and all those goodies. Vanilla planifolia (hereafter Vanilla) is described as monopodial (stem and leaves from a single foot), but if you are envisioning a Phalaenopsis or even a Vanda, your image will be way off. Vanilla is a vine. With roots in the earth, the plant can extend tens of meters up a tree trunk to reach higher light in the tree crown. Still, if you shortened and straightened the stem, the plant would look roughly like a wide-leaved Vanda, albeit with a lot of leaves. Members of the Vanilla genus are found across the world in wet tropical climates and Vanilla planifolia is native to Mexico through northern South America, though now also grown commercially in other areas.

Vanilla grown as an ornamental - the trunk is a tree but the leaves are Vanilla

Vanilla (the flavoring) is the seed pod of Vanilla planifolia after curing, the well known dark brown "bean" of the photo at the top. If you google "vanilla" and look at images, they correctly show the beans with a flower, but to my amazement none of them are actually the Vanilla flower, despite the fact that it is quite lovely. On my browser in July 2017, the top hit images in order include a flower of: a Phalaenopsis, a Dendrobium, a flower that is not an orchid at all, another Phalaenopsis (this picture is from an article claiming that vanilla treats just about everything that ails you, including preventing cancer, so I suppose the mismatched flower is the least of its offenses), a Cymbidium, another Dendrobium, another Cymbidium, etc. It is not until the 16th bean/flower photo that there is one that looks like a Vanilla flower. As if this were not enough, a few of the top hit images also include leaves that are definitely not orchid leaves, though I can't say what kind they are. Incredibly, even googling "vanilla flower" gets a top hit that is clearly a Cymbidium flower, though the second and seventh top image hits appear to be Vanilla flowers, which is slightly heartening. As the French say, incroyable! Now these images are found in articles that focus on vanilla as a food (and a dubious medicine), but really: how hard is it to be at least vaguely accurate? It reminds of Hollywood movies and the 45th president of my own United States - truth as marketing or convenience.

An alba form of the actual Vanilla planifolia flower

Rant over, back to reality. The vanilla seed pod arises of course only after pollination of the flower and the flower is very short lasting, so to ensure efficient pod production in vanilla plantations, the plants are hand pollinated. After the pod largely ripens on the vine, the pod is cut and undergoes several steps of curing to develop the best aroma and flavor, largely comprised of the compound vanillin, with a few other compounds contributing to complexity. I am interested in scents and I have a vial of pure vanillin - I don't know about the taste, but I can assure you, you would be hard pressed to tell the scent of vanillin from vanilla bean. And here vanillin is in all its chemical glory, looking as if it might poison you or strip the flesh from your bones, but in fact quite benign and smelling like heaven:

All of the Vanilla species form very large plants, so unless you have a huge greenhouse, a strong desire, or an appropriate outdoor climate, you won't be growing them. But you have eaten them many times, and will many times again. Vive la vanilla!