Pesach Lubinsky, a postdoctoral researcher in UC Riverside's
department of botany and plant sciences, attends to a
vanilla orchid.
(Credit: UCR Strategic Communications)
Tahitian Vanilla Originated In Maya Forests, Says Botanist
ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2008) — The origin of the Tahitian vanilla orchid, whose cured fruit is the source
of the rare and highly esteemed gourmet French Polynesian spice, has long eluded botanists. Known by
the scientific name Vanilla tahitensis, Tahitian vanilla is found to exist only in cultivation; natural, wild
populations of the orchid have never been encountered.
Now, a team of investigators led by Pesach Lubinsky, a postdoctoral researcher with Norman Ellstrand,
a professor of genetics in UC Riverside's Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, claims to have traced Tahitian vanilla back to its true origins.
In the August issue of the American Journal of Botany, Lubinsky and colleagues use genetic and ethno-
historic analysis to argue that Tahitian vanilla began its evolutionary journey as a pre-Columbian Maya
cultivar inside the tropical forests of Guatemala.
"All the evidence points in the same direction," Lubinsky said. "Our DNA analysis corroborates what the
historical sources say, namely, that vanilla was a trade item brought to Tahiti by French sailors in the
mid-19th century. The French Admiral responsible for introducing vanilla to Tahiti, Alphonse Hamelin,
used vanilla cuttings from the Philippines. The historical record tells us that vanilla – which isn't native
to the Philippines – was previously introduced to the region via the Manila Galleon trade from the New
World, and specifically from Guatemala."
The Manila galleons (1565-1815) were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice each year across
the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico. The ships brought Chinese
porcelain, silk, ivory, spices, and other exotic goods to Mexico in exchange for New World silver.
The genetic data Lubinsky and his colleagues obtained confirmed that the closest relatives to Tahitian
vanilla, from among 40 different Vanilla species they analyzed from across the world, were two species
that grow naturally only in the tropical forests of Central America: Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla odorata.
V. planifolia is also the primary species cultivated for commercial vanilla, and is grown principally in Mada-
gascar and Indonesia. V. odorata has never been cultivated.