That’s only outside their native range. In Mexico, where they’re from, they’re pollinated by the Melipona bee. Mexico is currently 3rd place in vanilla production at 6.5%, so you’re not wrong to say the majority of vanilla plants are pollinated by hand, but they do have a natural pollinator. In theory, you could introduce the Melipona bee to areas where Vanilla has been imported to cut down the labor time/costs.
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
162 points (98.8% liked)
Today I Learned
17700 readers
1242 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Thinks makes me wonder if they could make a "closed system" outside the natural range - like a giant greenhouse that includes the plant AND the bee.
Which would then turn into a movie-worthy story about the bees getting out and somehow causing the zombie apocalypse.
OR - it would just be BioDome with Pauly Shore. But with bees.
Ya like jazz?
You should edit the wikipedia entry and include this!
I just looked at the Wikipedia page and I think it’s fine. They’ve cited some sources which detail the debate about which pollinators actually pollinate the plant. Compared to someone who’s got a degree studying plants, I know basically nothing. I’m just repeating what I’ve heard. If they’ve got a list of pollinators and are trying to narrow down the right one, then they’re closer to the truth than I am.
That's why "Madagascar vanilla" is such a funny marketing term. It's trying to make it sound exotic, but it's the biggest source of vanilla. Vanilla pretty much has to come from a super impoverished country to be able to be cultivated with hand pollination. They grow vanilla on hawaii, and a single bean costs $20. It might taste better than $1 madagascan beans, but probably not 20 times better.
Created the entire vanilla industry pretty much single-handedly and died in poverty. Sounds about right.
Horrible that he died in poverty, but he did die a free man, which is a lot more than you can say for most black people on Réunion.
Man, the word "vanilla" has become so ubiquitous with "plain, unaltered, default" that I was really confused at first.
You could make an anime about that
The Time I got Reincarnated as a Professional Plant Wanker in Another World.
It would be a damn isekai