Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

Systematics is a unifying science that draws on tools from a variety of disciplines to address questions of species status, geographic distribution, taxonomy, nomenclature, and evolution - that is, all aspects of plant diversity. Many systematic questions centered around Vanilla have been addressed in recent years. For example, we now understand that classification systems emphasizing the leafy versus leafless habit of Vanilla species do not reflect actual patterns of evolution. Instead, geography is a better indicator of species relationships. At the same time that long standing questions are answered, however, new questions present themselves. For example, is Vanilla pompona a single species or a complex of several closely related species? Did Vanilla tahitensis ever persist as a naturally occurring hybrid in Mesoamerica or is it entirely man-made? How many native species of leafless Vanilla actually exist in Madagascar? Are reports of wild Vanilla planifolia vines in Mexico nothing more than examples of cultivated plants that have escaped to become feral? These and other systematic questions focused on Vanilla and its relatives eventually will be taken up by future generations of botanists. Vanilla planifolia may not be absolutely unique within Orchidaceae, but the vanilloid orchids offer a number of unique opportunities to better understand the basic biology of the largest family of plants on Earth, and humankind’s singularly most popular flavor and fragrance.

REFERENCES

Cameron, K.M. (1999) Biogeography of Vanilloideae (Orchidaceae). XVIInternational Botanical Congress, Abstracts, 749. St Louis, Missouri.

Cameron, K.M. (2000) Gondwanan Biogeography of Vanilloideae (Orchidaceae). Southern Connections Congress, Programme and Abstracts, Lincoln, New Zealand, pp. 25-26.

Cameron K.M. (2003) Vanilloideae. In: Genera Orchidacearum Vol 3, Pridgeon, A., Cribb, P, Chase, M. and Rasmussen, F. (Eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 281-334.

Cameron, K.M. (2004) Utility of plastid psaB gene sequences for investigating intrafamilial relationships within Orchidaceae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 31, 1157-1180.

Cameron, K.M. (2005) Recent advances in the systematics biology of Vanilla and related orchids (Vanilloideae, Orchidaceae). In Vanilla: First International Congress. Allured Publishing, Carol Stream, IL.

Cameron, K.M. (2006) A comparison of plastid atpB and rbcL gene sequences for inferring phylogenetic relationships within Orchidaceae. In Monocots: Comparative Biology and Evolution, Columbus, J.T., Friar, E.A., Porter, J.M., Prince, L.M. and Simpson, M.G. (Eds), Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, CA, pp. 447-464.

Cameron, K.M. (2007) Molecular phylogenetics of Orchidaceae: the first decade of DNA sequencing. In Orchid Biology Reviews and Perspectives Vol. IX, Cameron, K., Arditti, J. and Kull, T. (Eds), The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY, pp. 163-200.

Cameron, K.M. and Chase, M. (1998) Seed morphology of the vanilloid orchids. Lindleyana, 13, 148-169.

Cameron, K.M. and Chase, M.W. (1999) Phylogenetic relationships of Pogoniinae (Vanilloideae, Orchidaceae): an herbaceous example of the eastern North America-eastern Asia phytogeographic disjunction. Journal of Plant Research, 112, 317-329.

Cameron, K.M. and Dickinson, W.C. (1998) Foliar architecture of vanilloid orchids: insights into the evolution of reticulate leaf venation in monocotyledons. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 128, 45-70.

Cameron, K. and Molina, M.C. (2006) Photosystem II gene sequences of psbB and psbC clarify the phylogenetic position of Vanilla (Vanilloideae, Orchidaceae). Cladistics, 22, 239-248.

Cameron, K.M., Chase, M., Whitten, M. et al. (1999) A phylogenetic analysis of the Orchidaceae, evidence from rbcL nucleotide sequences. American Journal of Botany, 86, 208-224.

Chase, M.W., Cameron, K.M., Barrett, R. and Freudenstein, J.F. (2003) DNA Data and Orchidaceae systematics: a new phylogenetic classification. In Orchid Conservation, ed. K.W. Dixon, Kell, S.P., Barrett, R.L. and Cribb, PJ. (Eds), Natural History Publications, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, pp. 69-89.

Dressler, R.L. (1979) The subfamilies of the Orchidaceae. Selbyana, 5, 197-206.

Dressler, R.L. (1993) Phylogeny and Classification of the Orchid Family. Dioscorides Press, Portland, OR.