{
 "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
 "id": "vanilla-hand-pollination",
 "type": "HistoricalEvent",
 "version": 1,
 "updated": "2026-09-30",
 "station": 12,
 "confidence": "B",
 "sources": [
  "GC-6",
  "VAN-1"
 ],
 "title": "Vanilla flowers pollinated by hand (1830s–1840s)",
 "date": {
  "value": "1832–1841",
  "precision": "range",
  "year": 1832,
  "evidence": "documented",
  "source": "GC-6",
  "where": "docs/sources/GC-6-de-oliveira-2022-vanilla.md:16",
  "quote": "In the 16th century, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, vanilla was introduced in Europe but was not cultivated outside of its native range until 1832, when Edmond Albius, from Reunion Island, developed a technique for manually pollinating the flowers [13].",
  "confidence": "B",
  "sources": [
   "VAN-1"
  ],
  "note": "the filed sources disagree: GC-6 dates Albius’s technique to 1832; VAN-1 says his discovery was \"allegedly, in 1841\" and records Charles Morren’s hand fertilisation in Liège on 16 February 1836"
 },
 "kind": "cultivation",
 "what": {
  "value": "Artificial pollination of vanilla flowers is worked out: by Charles Morren in Liège and by Edmond Albius on Réunion, whose method made the crop.",
  "evidence": "documented",
  "source": "VAN-1",
  "where": "docs/sources/VAN-1-karremans-2024-vanilla-pollination-history.md:21",
  "quote": "On the 16th of February 1836, Morren … to artificially fertilize a Vanilla flower",
  "confidence": "B"
 },
 "label": "documented",
 "place": {
  "value": null,
  "evidence": null,
  "source": null,
  "where": null,
  "confidence": null,
  "note": "no place on record for this event"
 },
 "actors": [
  {
   "name": "Edmond Albius",
   "role": "grower, Réunion",
   "perfumer": null,
   "evidence": "documented",
   "source": "GC-6",
   "where": "docs/sources/GC-6-de-oliveira-2022-vanilla.md:16",
   "quote": "In the 16th century, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, vanilla was introduced in Europe but was not cultivated outside of its native range until 1832, when Edmond Albius, from Reunion Island, developed a technique for manually pollinating the flowers [13].",
   "confidence": "A"
  },
  {
   "name": "Charles Morren",
   "role": "naturalist, Liège",
   "perfumer": null,
   "evidence": "documented",
   "source": "VAN-1",
   "where": "docs/sources/VAN-1-karremans-2024-vanilla-pollination-history.md:21",
   "quote": "On the 16th of February 1836, Morren … to artificially fertilize a Vanilla flower",
   "confidence": "A"
  }
 ],
 "disagreements": [
  {
   "text": "The year: GC-6 gives 1832 for Albius’s technique; VAN-1 gives 1841 (\"allegedly\") for Albius and 16 February 1836 for Morren’s hand fertilisation. The record gives the range and all three.",
   "sources": [
    "GC-6",
    "VAN-1"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "molecules": [],
 "materials": [
  "cured-vanilla-pods"
 ],
 "botanicals": [
  "vanilla-planifolia"
 ],
 "origins": [],
 "perfumers": [],
 "fragrances": [],
 "regulations": [],
 "accords": [],
 "media": [],
 "links": {
  "essay": "/history#mega-timeline"
 },
 "copy": {
  "lede": "Vanilla needs its flowers pollinated by hand to set fruit, and the filed sources date the discovery of how differently.",
  "body": [
   "One review gives 1832 for Edmond Albius on Réunion; a historical review gives 1841 for Albius and 16 February 1836 for Charles Morren in Liège. The record keeps all three and chooses none."
  ]
 }
}