Vanilla planifolia
The source of commercial vanilla, a vining orchid from humid lowland forests of Mexico, Central America and northern South America. It starts on the ground and climbs trees with aerial roots, becoming a hemiepiphyte. It grows easily in warm, humid conditions but needs a large mature vine, bright light and a short dry spell before it will flower.
Where it grows wild
A hemiepiphytic vine of humid tropical forest. It roots in the ground and climbs tree trunks with thick aerial roots, eventually reaching brighter light in the canopy. In deep shade it rarely branches; more light encourages branching and flowering, but too much stresses it.
Typically 150–900 m. The 299 GBIF records with an elevation span 0–1895 m, median 200 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.