Edmond Albius (1829 – 9 August 1880) was a

horticulturalist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

from

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

. Born into slavery, Albius became an important figure in the cultivation of

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

. At the age of 12, he invented a technique for pollinating vanilla orchids quickly and profitably. Albius's technique revolutionized the cultivation of vanilla and made it possible to profitably grow vanilla beans away from their native

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Early life

Albius was born in St. Suzanne,

. His mother, a slave, died during his birth. The colonist keeping Edmond in slavery was Féréol Bellier Beaumont.

Vanilla pollination

French colonists brought vanilla beans to Réunion and nearby

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

in the 1820s with the hope of starting production there. However, the vines were sterile because no insect would pollinate them. In the 1830s, Charles Morren, a professor of botany at the University of Liège in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, developed a method of hand-pollinating vanilla, but his technique was slow and required too much effort to make cultivating vanilla a moneymaking proposition. Albius's enslaver, Mr. Beaumont, taught him the basics of botany, including how to fertilize flowers. In 1841, Albius invented a method to quickly pollinate the vanilla orchid using a thin stick or blade of grass and a simple thumb gesture. Using the stick or grass blade, field hands lift the

rostellum The rostellum is a projecting part of the column in Orchidaceae flowers, and separates the male androecium from the female gynoecium, commonly preventing self-fertilisation. In many orchids, such as '' Orchis mascula'', the pollinia or pollen ma ...

, the flap that separates the male

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

from the female stigma, and then, with their thumbs, smear the sticky

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

from the anther over the stigma. Albius's manual pollination method is still used today, as nearly all vanilla is pollinated by hand. After Albius's discovery, Réunion became for a time the world's largest supplier of vanilla. French colonists used Albius's technique in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

to cultivate vanilla, and Madagascar remains the world's chief vanilla producer. Noted French botanist and plant collector

Jean Michel Claude Richard Jean Michel Claude Richard (16 August 1787 – 1868) was a noted French botanist and plant collector active in Senegal, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Réunion, and a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. Richard was born in Volon, Haute-Saône. He was ...

falsely claimed to have discovered the technique three or four years earlier.

Later life

In gratitude for – and in recognition of – his discovery, locals on Réunion attempted (unsuccessfully) to obtain a reward or a government stipend for Albius. In 1848, France outlawed slavery in its colonies, and Albius left the

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

for St. Denis, where he worked as a kitchen servant. He adopted ''Albius'' as his new surname from ''alba'' "white" in reference to the vanilla orchid's colour. He was convicted of stealing jewelry and sentenced to ten years in prison, but the sentence was commuted after five years when the governor granted him clemency in light of his enormous contribution to vanilla production in Réunion. Albius died in poverty in St. Suzanne in 1880.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albius, Edmond Vanilla People of African descent from Réunion Slaves from Réunion Horticulturists from Réunion 1829 births 1880 deaths 19th-century slaves