History-Pollination

Vanilla planifolia, “the ice cream orchid” (Ecott, 2004), is the only orchid (Fig. 7-1A—I) grown as an edible plantation crop. The plant is a vine which produces long green fruits (they are capsules, not beans as they are usually referred to) that change color to brown (Fig. 7-2) and develop their well known aroma following curing. To produce fruits Vanilla flowers (Fig. 7-3) must be pollinated. In the natural habitat this is accomplished by male and female euglossine bees (Hagsater et al., 2005). When Vanilla plants were taken to Europe and cultivated in greenhouses they did not produce fruits because their pollinators were not present.

Vanilla seems to have been introduced into Europe “prior to 1739” and “probably in 1510” (Childers, Cibes, and Medina, 1959). By 1807 it was cultivated in Paddington, England (Childers, Cibes, and Medina 1959). After that cultivation became more widespread, but large scale commercial production of Vanilla, though of interest (Anonymous, 1855b), was not possible, the major reason being the failure of the plants to set fruit (Nolan, 1942; Childers et al., 1959). Introduction of Melipona bees (Fig. 7-1J), the natural pollinator (Beck, 1912) from Mexico was to no avail.