Vanilla planifolia belongs to the Orchid family (Orchidaceae), though it has many characteristics not common to most members of the family. It is a fleshy, dark-green perennial climber, adhering to trees by its aerial roots, which are produced at the nodes. The stem attains a length of many feet, reaching to the very tops of the supporting trees. The young plant roots in the ground, but as the stem grows in length, winding about its support and clinging to it by the aerial roots, it loses the subterranean roots and the plant establishes itself as a saprophyte or partial parasite, life habits common to orchids. The leaves are entire, dark green, and sessile. Inflorescence consists of eight to ten flowers sessile upon axillary spikes. The flowers are a pale greenish yellow, perianth rather fleshy and soon falls away from the ovary or young fruit, which is a pod, and by the casual observer would be taken for the flower stalk. The mature fruit is a brown curved pod six to eight inches long, smooth, splitting lengthwise in two unequal parts, thus liberating the numerous, very small, oval or lenticular seeds.

There are several species of vanilla indigenous to Eastern Mexico, growing in warm, moist, shaded forests. It is now extensively cultivated in Mexico; also in Mauritius, Bourbon, Madagascar and Java. It is extensively grown in hothouses of England and other temperate countries. The wild growing plants no doubt depended upon certain insects for pollination, but with the cultivated plants this is effected artificially by means of a small brush.

The word vanilla is derived from the Spanish vainilla, the diminutive of vaina, meaning a sheath or pod, in reference to the fruit.

There is little doubt that the natives of Mexico employed vanilla as a flavor for cocoa long before the discovery of America. We received our first description of the plant from the Spanish physician Hernandez, who, during 1571-1577 explored New Spain or Mexico. In 1602, Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, sent specimens of the fruit to Clusius, who described it independently of Hernandez. In 1694 vanilla was imported to Europe by way of Spain. In France it was much used for flavoring chocolate and tobacco. During the first half of the eighteenth century it was extensively used in Europe, particularly in England, after which it seems to have gradually disappeared. Now it is, however, again very abundantly employed in nearly all countries.

Vanilla must be cultivated with great care. In Mexico a clearing is made in the forest, leaving a few trees twelve to fifteen feet apart to serve as a support for the vanilla plants. Cuttings of the vanilla stems are made three to five feet in length, one cutting being inserted into the soil to a depth of about ten inches near each tree. The cuttings become rooted in about one month and grow quite rapidly, but do not begin to bear fruit until the third year and continue to bear for about thirty years. In Reunion, Mauritius and the Seychelles the young plants are supported by a rude trellis fastened between the trunks of trees. In cultivation pollination is universally effected artificially; the pollen being transplanted from one flower to another by means of a small brush or pencil. Only the finest flowers are thus fertilized so as to prevent exhaustion and to insure a good commercial article. Among wild growing plants pollination is effected through the agency of insects, which evidently do not occur in the vicinity of the plantations; thus man is called upon to assist nature. The pods are cut off separately as they ripen; if over-ripe they are apt to split in drying; if collected green the product will be of an inferior quality.