Vanilla

Vanilla planifolia

Orchidaceae

A climbing orchid whose green bean is cured into the world’s dessert spice.

Culinary cured pod. Synthetic vanillin is a different, cheaper flavor.

Parts used: Cured pod
Traditional notes: Kitchen spice · After-meal cordial folklore · Traditional appetite and calm
Grow · USDA 6b: Tropical orchid, USDA 10–12; greenhouse north A cutting. Seed is microscopic and needs a fungus. In work: Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
Harvest: Green pods at 8–9 months, then the long cure. Most kitchens buy the bean.

A jar from a grocer is the honest harvest north of the tropics.
If you flower it, pollinate the same morning.

Safety

Vanilla allergy (rare)

Lore

The Totonac of Veracruz cured the pod long before Cortés. The name is Spanish vainilla — little sheath — for the fruit. For three centuries Mexico held the secret: the flower needs a local bee, or a human thumb. Edmond Albius, a twelve-year-old enslaved on Réunion, solved the pollination in 1841 and the monopoly ended.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.