Do you know what vanilla looks like?

VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Tue 14 Aug 2012 21:17
I didn't, so here it is:
 
 
The plant is an orchid. This island, Huahine, is famous for its vanilla which is claimed to be better than the Madagascan variety commonly found in Europe. Since i cannot currently compare the two I can't offer an opinion - but the local stuff is nice. The cages are necessary to keep the birds off - each flower produces one pod which takes 9 months to ripen, so it's a slow business. The coconut husks are a mulch.