Tahitian vanilla originated in Maya forests, says UC Riverside botanist

Team led by Pesach Lubinsky identifies enigmatic orchid’s origins; traces its Pacific voyage via Spanish and French trading ships Pesach Lubinsky, a postdoctoral researcher in UC Riverside's department of botany and plant sciences, attends to a vanilla orchid. RIVERSIDE, Calif. – 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... [read full story]