Description

Just about everyone has enjoyed the flavor of vanilla, but many are not aware where this delightful taste comes from. Vanilla is actually a genus of about 110 species in the orchid family (Orchidaceae) native to tropical and subtropical areas of Central America, Asia, New Guinea and West Africa. The flavoring we
use is derived from the seed pods of a few of these plants.
A large percentage of the world’s vanilla is used in ice cream, yogurt and other commercial dairy products. The tiny black seeds are often seen in quality ice creams that use real vanilla beans for their flavor. In addition to being a favorite flavor in foods and beverages, it is also used in perfumes, for flavoring medicines and in industrial applications to mask strong odors. In home kitchens vanilla is used almost exclusively in sweet, rather than savory, dishes. Vanilla is and essential ingredient in many cookies, cakes, puddings and pastries.The evergreen V. planifolia grows as a rambling perennial herbaceous vine, climbing up trees in its native environment as an understory plant, or on poles or other supports in plantations. Long, whitish adventitious roots produced opposite the leaves at nodes along the vine anchor the plant to its support. The long, cylindrical, dark green branching stems are succulent but brittle. Flat, fleshy, oblong-elliptic to lanceolate leaves are produced alternately along the stem. Although the vines will grow up to 75 feet high, in plantations they are trained to a convenient height for hand pollination and harvesting.Plants are vegetatively propagated from stem cuttings. Vine sections with 6 or more nodes are stuck into loose soil, with the lower two nodes buried, and the remainder exposed and placed near a support. Roots growing from each node will attach to the pole or other tree as growth resumes.