Vanilla Breeding - A Review

Breeding behaviour of vanilla needs a thorough relook taking into consideration the various reports of autogamy, self incompatibility and natural crossing. Vanilla planifolia flower is adapted to cross pollination, the anthers being physically separated from the stigma by a rostellum. In case of aided pollination, the rostellum is pushed back and the anthers are brought to contact with the stigma ensuring pollination. However, occasionally autogamy too is observed besides self incompatibility. Cultivar diversity, arising probably due to somatic crossing over, bud sports or sexual reproduction, too is encountered in the crop though vegetative propagation is the rule in vanilla.Vanilla germplasm maintained in the clonal repositories conserve both the primary and secondary gene pools. Given the scenario of viable sexual reproduction and the scope for fixing any new variation through vegetative propagation,vanilla improvement is exciting. The present review is an attempt to look into the global scenario of conventional breeding of vanilla taking into consideration the conflicting reports on the breeding behaviour of the plant which may give new directions for the improvement of the crop by conventional breeding. New breeding strategies are also suggested.