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In 1841, he was an enslaved 12-year old who had no formal education and could not read or write. And yet, Albius was able to discover a technique for pollinating vanilla orchids in a quick and profitable way.
Albius had solved a mystery that had stumped the best botanists of his time. Without his technique, vanilla would not be as popular as it is today.
In the 1820s, French colonists brought over vanilla beans to Réunion Island (Albius was born there in 1829) and Mauritius from Mexico. They soon realized that no insect would pollinate the vanilla orchid. In Mexico this was done by their wild bees. In the 1830s, a Belgian botanist by the name of Charles Morten developed a technique of pollinating the vanilla by hand. While the method worked, it was very time-consuming and required a large labor force.
12-year-old Albius used a blade of grass or a thin stick to lift the flap and fold down the male part so that the pollen came in contact with the female part. Once that was done, he would use his thumb to press down lightly, effectively pollinating the vanilla orchid. While his technique seemed very simple, it single-handedly changed the industry. Réunion, at one point, became the world's largest supplier of vanilla.
Albius’ contributions to science went largely unrecognized in his lifetime, and he died in obscurity. It wasn’t until many years after his death that his work was acknowledged and celebrated as a major breakthrough in botanical history.
Today, Madagascar is the largest supplier of vanilla and still utilizes Albius' technique.
