Orchid Greenhouse at the Inn at Weston in Weston, Vt. - Travel

Vanilla beans are the seed pods of an orchid. Widely used for food flavoring and cosmetics, the flat-leaved vanilla orchid (V. planifolia), grown in Mexico and Madagascar, yields the only industrial product derived from orchids, among the world’s most popular plants. I learned this from Bob Aldrich, a former cardiologist turned innkeeper, as we toured his greenhouse.