Watch Gina Empson hand-pollinating a vanilla flower

Pollination season

At Vanilla Paradise Nevis a very important season of the year is just coming to an end: the flowering season for vanilla orchids. This means that it’s also the end of the pollinating season. In Nevis which is located in the Northern Hemisphere at 17 degrees north, the flowering season this year began in early April, and finished at the end of May, some 60 days in all. In contrast, in countries like La Réunion, Madagascar, Bali, and Indonesia, situated in the Southern Hemisphere, flowering takes place in the autumn months.

A labour of love

Timing is of the essence when it comes to pollination. The delicate and small vanilla flower opens with dawn but then fades and wilts by midday, so early morning pollination is imperative. Each flower has to be pollinated by hand, as the minute Melipona bee, that is thought to be the natural pollinator for vanilla flower, is all but extinct. In my time on Nevis I have only seen three vanilla beans that have been pollinated in the wild; could it be humming birds that are abundant on the island or a small insect – it is a real mystery. Charles Darwin wrote, in 1862, an entire book on orchid pollination with the wonderful title of “On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects”. He did not name a natural pollinator and wrote “it does not fruit without artificial aid”.

“The intricate relationship between orchids and their pollinators is a testament to the complexity and beauty of nature”- Charles François Murren, c1840, botanist who discovered hand-pollination of vanilla orchids.

The “facts of life” for a vanilla orchid

Vanilla orchid flowers are hermaphroditic. This means they contain both female and male parts in the same flower. The two parts are separated by a membrane that has evolved to make self-pollination difficult! In order for the flower to produce a fruit, the vanilla bean, the pollen from the male reproductive organ (the anther) must be transferred to the female reproductive organ (the stigma). Here on Vanilla Paradise Nevis, we use a very humble, but efficient, tool: a short tooth-pick of the kind cocktail sausages are served up on!

Pollination involves carefully lifting, with the toothpick, the membrane (the rostellum), that separates the male and female parts, and then pressing the anther and stigma together. This process is time-consuming and labour-intensive, but since the method was discovered in 1841 by Edmond Albius, a young enslaved boy in Réunion Island, it is the method that is still used today. If you can think of another way of doing it, please tell us!

**A simple toothpick is all it takes (and a dose of patience!)**

Renowned author Tim Ecott wrote a beautiful description of the vanilla orchid waiting to be pollinated, in his book “Vanilla: Travels in search of the Luscious Substance”:

The Vanilla orchid opens in the pale light. Five celadon petals stand out around the centre of the blossom as it spreads beneath the earliest rays of the sun. Small and cream-smooth, they encircle a graceful yellow flute, the lip of the flower, which hangs outwards above the fleshy green stem of its climbing vine. Inside is the heart of the flower, filled with the makings of its own seed. There, pollen balls, sticky and heavy with desire, hand above the rostellum, a thick tongue-flap of tissue seperating the mass from the moist female organs below. In the wild, a bee might creep acreoss the interior of the flower, dragging its wings and legs between the tissues and melding the ingredients of its sex. Tiny pollen grains will cling to the bee and fly with it to another flute, mixing the plant’s own character with that of another. but, left inviolate, and unvisited, the gentle flower will bloom for five or six hours, and then wither in the tropical sun. By mid-afternoon it will be a shrivelled sack fallen to the ground.

Cruel to be kind

Culling flowers may seem counterintuitive, but it is an essential step in maximizing successful pollination. Each vanilla plant can bear numerous flowers, but allowing all of them to develop will stress the orchid and lead to small beans or vines that fail to flower the next year.. Therefore, the weakest flowers are carefully selected and removed. It’s not a pleasant task to perform as getting to the stage of having flowers at all is long and laborious!

Signs of Successful Pollination

After successful pollination, a small green bean or pod will start to develop at the base of the flower.The bean gets to its full length in about two months and then takes the seven additional months to mature: it will grow fatter but not necessarily longer. The success rate of pollination on Vanilla Paradise Nevis is running at around 70% which is acceptable as a worldwide average is between 60-80%.

**Successful pollination: green pods appear at the base of the flower**

At Vanilla Paradise Nevis, the flowering and pollination season marks a significant chapter in the life of vanilla orchids. It is a time of anticipation, hard work, and hopefully a harvest of exquisite vanilla beans. With the conclusion of the flowering and pollination season, we now shift our focus to other essential tasks while eagerly awaiting the appearance of the precious vanilla pods and on to the harvest.

Vanilla Orchids and Pollination Season at Vanilla Paradise Nevis