Vanilla phaeantha
Rchb.f.
Orchidaceae
Common Name:
The flowers open up in the morning and by noontime they have started to close up.
Photograph by: NC Orchid
The flowers open up in the morning and by noontime they have started to close up.
Photograph by: NC Orchid
The plant, climbing up a tree trunk. The zig-zag pattern is very chacteristic.
Photograph by: NC Orchid
General Information
Vanilla phaeantha is a succulent-stemmed, perennial climbing plant, producing a stem that can be 7 metres or more long. The plant grows into trees, supporting itself by means of aerial roots that are produced from the stem nodes. It is often epiphytic, or becomes epiphytic as the lower portion of the stem withers and dies.
The seedpods are used as a vanilla-like food flavouring. The plant is sometimes cultivated for the pleasantly aromatic seedpods and it has been grown experimentally in Puerto Rico because of its disease resistance[
].
Known Hazards
None known
Botanical References
426- Title
- Flowering Plants of Jamaica
- Publication
-
- Author
- Adams. C.D.
- Publisher
- University of the West Indies; Jamaica.
- Year
- 1972
- ISBN
-
- Description
- A terse treatment of the flowering plants of Jamaica, with a botanical description of each plant, notes on habitat etc.
Range
Central America - Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador; Caribbean - Jamaica to the Bahamas; North America - Florida, Mexico.
Habitat
Woodland on limestone at elevations around 250 metres[
426- Title
- Flowering Plants of Jamaica
- Publication
-
- Author
- Adams. C.D.
- Publisher
- University of the West Indies; Jamaica.
- Year
- 1972
- ISBN
-
- Description
- A terse treatment of the flowering plants of Jamaica, with a botanical description of each plant, notes on habitat etc.
].
Properties
| Edibility Rating |  |
| Medicinal Rating |  |
| Habit | Perennial Climber |
| Height | 0.00 m |
| Cultivation Status | Cultivated, Wild |
Cultivation Details
The flowers usually need to be hand pollinated, especially when the plant is growing outside its native range, if the fruit is to be produced[
648- Title
- Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. Vol. 51
- Publication
-
- Author
- Acevedo-Rodríguez P. (Editor)
- Website
- http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
- Publisher
- Smithsonian Institution; Washington.
- Year
- 2005
- ISBN
-
- Description
- A treatment of the climbing plants of Puerto Rico. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
].
Edible Uses
The seedpods are used as a vanilla-like flavouring[
46- Title
- Dictionary of Economic Plants.
- Publication
-
- Author
- Uphof. J. C. Th.
- Publisher
- Weinheim
- Year
- 1959
- ISBN
- -
- Description
- An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
,
].
Medicinal
The plant has medicinal uses[
].
Other Uses
None known
Propagation
Seed -
If you have any useful information about this plant, please leave a comment. Comments have to be approved before they are shown here.
Useful Tropical Plants Database 2014 by
Ken Fern,
web interface by
Ajna Fern
with help from
Richard Morris.
