Vanilla is the No. 1 flavor for ice cream in the U.S., which consumes most of the world's vanilla supply. The spice is produced from the fruit, or "beans," of two orchid species, Vanilla tahitensis (in the photo) and Vanilla planifolia. Only about five percent of natural vanilla used in food comes from V. tahitensis, commonly known as Tahitian vanilla.
Photo Lubinsky/UC Riverside
Scientists may have solved the mystery of the origin of the Tahitian vanilla orchid, the rare plant that produces a richly-flavored spice esteemed by vanilla gourmets.
The orchid is known to exist only in cultivated or feral stands, primarily on the French Polynesian island Tahiti. Natural, wild populations have never been found.
But now botanists think they know where it came from, and how it got to Tahiti hundreds of years ago.
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