Vanilloideae is one of the subfamilies of orchids belonging to the large family Orchidaceae. Lindley (1836) and even Garay (1986) used to treat it as a separate family Vanillaceae. But their single, incumbent anther and poorly organised pollinia led to their recognition as at best a subgroup of monandrous orchids. But, from a molecular point of view, this clade is rather a sister to subfamily Epidendroideae and subfamily Orchidoideae in the Orchidaceae, and thus it is today also considered a subfamily. Their distribution is pantropical, throughout Asia, Australia and the Americas.