Vanilja – Vanilla planifolia

Stems are green and fleshy, 1-2 cm thick, smooth, with aerial roots at nodes. Leaves are succulent, sessile, alternate, up to 25 x 8 cm, oval, entire, glabrous, with parallel venation. Flowers are numerous in axillary racemes, greenish yellow, zygomorphic, up to 7 x 1.5 cm, with 3 sepals and 3 petals, one of the petals modified as a tubular labellum containing the anther and stigma. Ovary is inferior. Fruit is a drooping cylindrical 12-25 cm long and 6-10 mm thick capsule. Seeds are very small, numerous, glossy, black.