Vanilla planifolia Andrews

It is native to Mexico. It was not grown outside its native range until 1832, when Edmond Albius of Réunion found how to pollinate the flower by hand; the flower usually lasts a single day, and hand pollination remains essential.

Read the essay · The card

The record

Each field carries its evidence: open a chip for the source, the quoted words and the confidence. A field with nothing behind it says so and stays empty.

Latin name

Vanilla planifolia Andrews

documented

"scientificName": "Vanilla planifolia Andrews"

GBIF-1 · GBIF Secretariat (2023) · read 2026-09-30

the accepted name in the GBIF Backbone (usage 2803398); GC-5 writes “Vanilla planifolia Jacks. ex Andrews”

confidence A

Common name

vanilla

documented

Vanilla planifolia Jacks. ex Andrews (Ramos-Castellá et al., 2016), a member of the Orchidaceae family, is the only orchid cultivated for human consumption due to its production of an aromatic fruit: the vanilla pod (Ahmad et al, 2020;

GC-5 · Cuan-Escobar TA, Cuellar-Sánchez A, Gómez-Velázquez HDJ, Monribot-Villanueva JL, Guerrero- · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

Family

Orchidaceae

documented

"family": "Orchidaceae"

GBIF-1 · GBIF Secretariat (2023) · read 2026-09-30

and GC-5: “a member of the Orchidaceae family”

confidence A

Part used

the fruit, the vanilla pod

documented

Vanilla planifolia Jacks. ex Andrews (Ramos-Castellá et al., 2016), a member of the Orchidaceae family, is the only orchid cultivated for human consumption due to its production of an aromatic fruit: the vanilla pod (Ahmad et al, 2020;

GC-5 · Cuan-Escobar TA, Cuellar-Sánchez A, Gómez-Velázquez HDJ, Monribot-Villanueva JL, Guerrero- · read 2026-09-30

confidence A

Cultivars

not on record

not on record

no cultivar is named in a filed source

Origins on record

• Madagascar
  documented

  small farms on the island; the share is not shown

  confidence B

Materials

• cured vanilla pods · by curing

Films and plates

• SPEC-8 · vanilla: the /materials specimen still · still
• OR-8 · vanilla: the origin film (the field to the bench) · queued: the master queue lists OR-8 as queued (the render queue’s list, read 2026-09-30); no path until it is rendered and published
  a render-time texture (Forest Floor; a render input only): "Forest Floor", eye-candy.xyz (Poly Haven), CC0 1.0; a render-time texture (Bark Brown 02; a render input only): "Bark Brown 02", Rob Tuytel (Poly Haven), CC0 1.0

Claims register

Every sentence and number the site states about this record, with its status after the 2026-09-27 review.

• softened · Pollination window: The single day the flower is open (was: Pollination window ~4 hours)
  documented · register row 1324

  GC-6 · de Oliveira RT, da Silva Oliveira JP, Macedo AF · read 2026-09-30

  softened by the house’s review 2026-09-27 (row 2295). GC-6: “Vanilla flowers are ephemeral and usually last a single day”, V. planifolia among them (GC-6). The old “~4 hours” and today’s “a few hours” have no filed source; “the single day it is open” would be sourced (main’s call). the house’s review (2026-09-30, the copy pass): the facts row reads “The single day the flower is open” (GC-6)

  where the site says it: /materials, “Madagascar Vanilla”

  confidence B

• softened · One of the most labour-intensive spices there is: each flower pollinated by hand on the single day it is open. (was: The most labor-intensive spice on earth, each flower hand-pollinated during a four-hour window.)
  documented · register row 2290

  GC-6 · de Oliveira RT, da Silva Oliveira JP, Macedo AF · read 2026-09-30

  GC-6 supports the hand pollination (“hand pollination is required for fruit production”, GC-6); “one of the most labour-intensive” has no filed source. GC-6: “Vanilla flowers are ephemeral and usually last a single day”, V. planifolia among them (GC-6). The old “~4 hours” and today’s “a few hours” have no filed source; “the single day it is open” would be sourced (main’s call). the house’s review (2026-09-30, the copy pass): “in the few hours it is open” → “on the single day it is open” (GC-6)

  where the site says it: /materials, “Madagascar Vanilla”

  confidence B

• softened · Pollination window: The single day the flower is open (was: Pollination window: ~4 hours)
  documented · register row 2295

  GC-6 · de Oliveira RT, da Silva Oliveira JP, Macedo AF · read 2026-09-30

  GC-6: “Vanilla flowers are ephemeral and usually last a single day”, V. planifolia among them (GC-6). The old “~4 hours” and today’s “a few hours” have no filed source; “the single day it is open” would be sourced (main’s call). the house’s review (2026-09-30, the copy pass): the facts row reads “The single day the flower is open” (GC-6)

  where the site says it: /materials, “Madagascar Vanilla”

  confidence B

Sources

1. GBIF-1 · GBIF Secretariat (2023). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-09-30. doi.org/10.15468/39omei · read 2026-09-30 · CC BY 4.0 (the dataset’s licence field); the JSON responses are filed, pretty-printed, with this attribution
2. GC-5 · Cuan-Escobar TA, Cuellar-Sánchez A, Gómez-Velázquez HDJ, Monribot-Villanueva JL, Guerrero-Analco JA, Gutiérrez-Díaz I, Luna-Vital DA. Effect of different killing methods during curing on the phytochemical and bacterial composition of Vanilla planifolia using multi-omic approaches. Food Chemistry: X 2025;26:102269. DOI 10.1016/j.fochx.2025.102269. PMID 40034982. PMCID PMC11872573. doi.org/10.1016/j.fochx.2025.102269 · read 2026-09-30 · CC BY 4.0 (open access, as the article states); short quotes only, the text is not filed
3. GC-6 · de Oliveira RT, da Silva Oliveira JP, Macedo AF. Vanilla beyond Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla × tahitensis: Taxonomy and Historical Notes, Reproductive Biology, and Metabolites. Plants (Basel) 2022;11(23):3311. DOI 10.3390/plants11233311. PMID 36501350. PMCID PMC9739750. doi.org/10.3390/plants11233311 · read 2026-09-30 · CC BY (open access, MDPI, as the article states); short quotes only, the text is not filed

These records are published under CC BY 4.0.

this record as data: /data/botanical/vanilla-planifolia.json · version 2 · updated 2026-09-30 · confidence A