MADAGASCAR: VANILLA (Vanilla planifolia)

AN ORCHID that grows as a climbing vine, vanilla is native to Central American tropical forests, where it can grow 100 feet high using trees for support. Until the mid-nineteenth century, when it was planted in other hot and humid places, the main source was Mexico, where discerning Aztecs cultivated it to flavour their cocoa. The largest grower in the world is now Madagascar, whose climate and low labour costs suit vanilla production. In restrained shades of yellow, cream and pale green, its hornshaped flowers smell faintly of cinnamon and are pollinated in their native habitat by hummingbirds and Melipona bees. These species live only in Central America, so everywhere else, each flower must be artificially and individually pollinated by hand. The blooms open for just one day, so vines are searched every morning for flowers.

The pollination technique still used today was developed in 1841 by Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old boy born into slavery in Réunion in the Indian Ocean: a sliver of bamboo is used to pierce the membrane separating the male and female parts of the flower, and pollen is transferred by squeezing the two parts together, known as “consummating the marriage”. Within a day, the thick green base of the flower swells, and over the following nine months it matures into a thin pod the length of a hand. Vanilla is such a valuable spice, second only to saffron, growers often incise each pod with their own code to deter thieves.