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← Advent Botany 2016 – Day 22: Crataegus mexicana (Tejocote)
Advent Botany 2016 – Day 24: Professor Vernon Heywood →

Advent Botany – Day 23: Vanilla – nothing plain about this flavour!

Posted on December 23, 2016 by Alastair Culham

By Rachel Webster and Sophie Mogg

Vanilla planifolia

Vanilla planifolia

I’m not one for cream on my Christmas pudding, it just has to be custard or ice cream and so what I’m really admitting to is a love for vanilla. Vanilla is the quietest spice at Christmas but there is so much more to vanilla than merely two scoops of ice cream.

Natural vanilla is the fruit and seeds from a tropical, climbing orchid. There are other edible orchids (e.g. Dendrobium flowers and salep tubers), but it is certainly the most commonly used in food preparation.  Some orchids are harvested from the wild to eat (such as Orchis mascula and O. militaris for salep), but given the demand, luckily this isn’t true for vanilla. There are over 100 orchid species in the Vanilla genus, but the most commonly cultivated species is Vanilla planifolia (more commonly known as Madagascan or Bourbon vanilla).

Vanilla growing in the tropical biome at the Eden Project

Vanilla growing in the tropical biome at the Eden Project

V. planifolia is native to Central and South America, and was first domesticated by the Totonac people of east Mexico, who used it exclusively until Aztec conquerors demanded vanilla as a tribute.

Read the full blog at Herbology Manchester.

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About Alastair Culham

A professional botanist and biologist with an interest in promoting biological knowledge and awareness to all.
View all posts by Alastair Culham →
This entry was posted in Advent, Herbarium RNG, Public Engagement with Science and tagged @Aristolochia, Vanilla. Bookmark the permalink.
← Advent Botany 2016 – Day 22: Crataegus mexicana (Tejocote)
Advent Botany 2016 – Day 24: Professor Vernon Heywood →
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