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Tahitian Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla planifolia

Description:

Beautiful white and yellow orchid of the vanilla plant.

Habitat:

At a farm on the French Polynesian island of Moorea.

Notes:

....must be pollinated manually, during the morning, if fruit is desired....In the wild, there is less than 1% chance that the flowers will be pollinated, so in order to receive a steady flow of fruit, the flowers must be hand-pollinated when grown on farms.

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4 Comments

HeatherK
HeatherK 11 years ago

Thanks!
alicelongmartin, that is exactly right. This explains why Tahitian vanilla is so expensive. I had no idea why until my visit to this farm. Nor did I know that vanilla came from such a beautiful plant.

rutasandinas
rutasandinas 11 years ago

Hermosa y seductora::

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 11 years ago

I have always wanted to see one of these flowers. It takes a certain kind of bee to pollinate it naturally and I believe they are in short supply! Thank you for sharing. Hope you got some Vanilla

YukoChartraw
YukoChartraw 11 years ago

Beautiful flower! It must smell so nice, too!

HeatherK
Spotted by
HeatherK

Papeete, French Polynesia

Spotted on Aug 25, 2011
Submitted on Sep 6, 2012

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