The flower opens for just one day. It opens at sunrise and can only be pollinated for a few hours - otherwise, it dies. In Madagascar, where more than 80% of the world's vanilla production comes from, the pollination of vanilla flowers is done by women, called matchmakers. They can pollinate as many as 1,000 flowers daily, while an experienced worker can pollinate up to 2,000. It takes about nine months from pollination to harvest.
