Was vanilla invented at the University of Liège?
Vanilla is a highly sought-after and rare spice. Until the middle of the 19th century, Mexico held the monopoly, as fertilization of the orchid required the intervention of a particular species of bees that could only live in the forests of Central America. Elsewhere in the world, all attempts to fertilize vanillas - and there are many - systematically fail.
At the University of Liège, a hot greenhouse in the botanical garden has had a few vanilla plants since 1829, but they remain hopelessly sterile, as is the case everywhere else. When Charles Morren was appointed Professor of Botany in 1935, he took a keen interest in the plants in the old greenhouses, where he discovered the vanillas. Intrigued by this sterility, he bought a number of books on the subject, carefully observed the plants and carried out a number of experiments. By 1936, he was able to inseminate the plants manually, flower by flower, using a technique he had invented. And it worked! The following year, he obtained 54 fruits, then a hundred in 1838. For the very first time, vanilla plants were producing fruit outside Mexico, and it was in Liège!
Charles Morren wrote:
"It's a tender flower that performs the work of hymen only unwillingly, and asks for man's help if that of insects or hummingbirds, which no doubt fulfill this role of messengers of love in the plant's native land, is refused! In fact, no fruit was produced from any of the fifty-four flowers to which I had artificially communicated pollen. The apron is removed or lifted, and a whole pollen mass, or just a part of it, is brought into contact with the stigma, because just one of these, cut into eight or ten pieces, can fertilize as many flowers... Vanilla takes a year to ripen. On February 16, 1836, the first flower opened; on February 16, 1837, the first fruit fell."
His discovery caused quite a stir. People from all over came to Liège to learn Morren's technique. As a result, the horticultural industry was able to develop vanilla production... and make huge profits from it. Morrendid not benefit, preferring his status as a teacher to that of an industrialist.
Let's be fair, if Morren hadn't succeeded that year, we'd still have vanilla in Europe, because in 1841, a young slave from Réunion, Edmond Albius, also discovered the pollination process. His masters immediately understood the benefits, which soon made Réunion the world's leading vanilla producer. Albius, on the other hand, being a slave, never saw the color of money.
Subsequently, the technique was widely disseminated, considerably lowering the price of beans, even if vanilla remains one of the most expensive spices in the world today.
The herbarium of the University of Liège preserves the traces of Charles Morren's formidable discovery.
