Vanilla Orchid: A Beautiful, Wonderfully Scented Flower

The vanilla orchid is one of the most unique flowering plants in the orchid family with currently about a hundred and ten species of this beautifully scented flower. Many of these are found in the warmer regions of the world.

Unlike many of the traditional orchids, such as moth orchids, vanilla orchids can be found naturally in places that aren't necessarily damp and cool with dense rainforest atmospheres, such as Central Africa, Brazil and southern Asia. It quite possible that due to the tropical climate, the vanilla orchid has adopted a different style of growth, similar to that of a vine. Since the vanilla orchid exhibits a vine like nature, it's usually found growing up a tree’s trunk.

Like many of its orchid cousins, the vanilla variety is evergreen and grows from one single point, making it monopodial. Their vines can grow up to thirty five meters with leaves that alternate along the stem.

One thing to note is that not all species of vanilla orchid come with leaves and many different vanilla orchid plants have no leaves whatsoever. This type of orchid flowers at certain times of the year, usually in the spring, but this is very short lived.

Generally, the flowers come in a variety of colors, including white, green and yellow. However, if you are looking for an orchid with stunning flowers that will last for a decent amount of time, you may want to overlook the vanilla variety.

Commercially used vanilla is extracted from this type of orchid, which has made this plant famous all over the world. The vanilla orchid's fruit is the vanilla bean, which is jsut a seed pod that ripens over the course of eight months after the flowers have been pollinated.

When the pods turn black after they have ripened, they give off the characteristic vanilla fragrancel. In commercial production of vanilla extracts, the seed pod is used instead of the seeds due to its much more potent flavor.

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