Vanilla plant
Vanilla flower and ripening fruits Vanilla is native to Central America and has a long record of pre-Columbian usage.
Sometimes called a Vanilla Plant due to the scent of its flowers, the redolence is not nearly as overt as marketeers pretend when concocting ad copy.
The commercial vanilla plant is usually V. planifolia or V. fragrans. Since its natural pollinating agents (certain bees and hummingbirds) are uniquely adapted for this function, commercial plants must be pollinated by hand.
The greenish flowers are about 2 inches across (5 cm). The fruits (pods) are about 6 to 9 inches long and usually referred to as vanilla beans. The vanilla plants starts producing fruit only when it is mature, generally larger than 10 feet.
The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species). The family also includes the Vanilla (the genus of the vanilla plant), ...
 See also: Vanilla, Orchid, Fruits, Green
  
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