2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Vanilla flat-leaved (Latin Vanilla planifolia) - an epiphytic evergreen plant of the genus Vanilla (Latin Vanilla), belonging to the Orchid family (Latin Orchidaceae). This is the main species of the genus used by people to obtain the spice of the same name. Since the pollination of flowers is carried out by people by hand, which is a very time consuming process, the cost of natural vanilla in the world market is very high. Vanillin is used not only in cooking, but also in medicine, as well as in the perfume industry.
What's in your name
The plant owes the generic Latin name "Vanilla" to the shape of its fruits, affectionately called "pods", since "Vanilla" in Spanish means "pod" - a diminutive word from the word "pod".
The specific epithet "flat-leaved", which is a direct translation of the Latin word "planifolia", speaks for itself.
In addition, the plant has many synonymous names, among which the following are especially common: "Fragrant vanilla", or even just "Vanilla".
The first botanist to describe the species "Vanilla planifolia" was a Briton, Henry Charles Andrews (1770 - 1830), who was also an excellent illustrator of the plants he described.
Description
Vanilla flat-leaved is not quite a typical member of the Orchid family, having a very specific flower shape that differs from most flowering tropical orchids that live on trees.
Although the plant has all the habits of epiphytic orchids, which have chosen the humid tropics for their life, and its general appearance is quite recognizable as a plant of the Orchid family, it has entered into a friendly alliance with only one species of bees, with which it shares its nectar in exchange for their work on pollination of a very intricately designed flower.
Yellow-green, relatively large flowers (up to six centimeters in length) form a racemose inflorescence that is born in the leaf axil. On a green stem, curling along the support, there are spectacular elliptical-oblong leaves, wide in their central part and tapering towards the base and pointed apex. Longitudinal veins are clearly distinguished on the leaf plate. They give the leaves a decorative look. Whitish aerial roots hang along the entire stem, originating in the leaf axils.
The flat-leaved vanilla fruit is a green pod, for which people grow plantations. The dried pod turns black and exudes the strongest vanilla aroma. From these pods and prepare the spice "vanillin", or use whole pods.
Usage
Flat-leaved vanilla is a rather spectacular plant, and therefore it is grown as a home plant in regions with a temperate climate.
But the main purpose of fragrant vanilla, assigned to the plant by man, is to obtain fragrant vanilla. However, when they tried to grow fragrant Vanilla far from their native lands, on the island of Madagascar and in Indonesia, where the climate was perfect for the plant, Vanilla flat-leaved reached the flowering stage, but categorically refused to tie the fruits.
The reason was the absence in the new places of a certain type of bees, engaged in pollination of an ingeniously cut flower. Attempts to breed such bees in Madagascar have been unsuccessful. After a long search for a way out of the impasse, a solution was found. Moreover, it was done by a child who served as an errand for a gardener. Having constructed a very simple "pollination tool" from a bamboo stick with a pointed end, he lifted the protective wall of the flower and transferred the pollen onto the stigma with his finger. For such an important discovery, he was granted freedom, liberation from the position of a slave, but, unfortunately, this did not bring him happiness in life. But it brought wealth to the Vanilla fragrant farmers, since the price of the spice in the world market is very high. True, the whole process of growing and making spices is very laborious and time-consuming.
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Vanilla
Vanilla (Latin Vanilla) - a genus of climbing plants belonging to the Orchid family (Latin Orchidaceae). Some species of lianas of this genus give people a fragrant spice of the same name, which is second only to Saffron in value. Despite the high cost associated with the laboriousness of the process of growing vanilla pods, the spice is very popular all over the world due to the unique taste of the seeds of the plant.
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