Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Vanilla grown the old-fashioned way spices up plant life

Time-honoured methods of raising vanilla orchids are friendliest for native plants.
A Malagasy farmer and her son in a plantation of vanilla near Sambava, east of Madagascar

A farmer inspects the crop on one of Madagascar’s many vanilla plantations, which pose a threat to the richness of native plant life. Credit: Babelon Pierre-Yves/Alamy

Vanilla is often belittled as bland, but surveys now show that demand for this flavouring can have grave results: some vanilla farms endanger plant biodiversity. The good news is that old-fashioned forest-covered vanilla plantations could be less of a threat than industrial-style modern cultivation.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 572, 9 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02286-0

References

Subjects

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links