Theobroma cacao

Theobroma cacao

Plant | Theobroma cacao | Cacao (Theobroma cacao) is a small (4–8 m tall (15-26 ft)) evergreen tree in the family Sterculiaceae (alternatively Malvaceae), native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. There are two prominent competing theories about the origins of the original wild Theobroma cacao tree.
One group of proponents believe wild examples were originally distributed from southeastern Mexico to the Amazon basin, with domestication taking place both in the Lacandon area of Mesoamerica and in lowland South America. Recent studies of Theobroma cacao genetics seem to show that the plant originated in the Amazon and was distributed by man throughout Central America and Mesoamerica. Its seeds are used to make cocoa and chocolate.

Theobroma cacao

The tree is today found growing wild in the low foothills of the Andes at elevations of around 200–400 m (650-1300 ft) in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. It requires a humid climate with regular rainfall and good soil. It is an understory tree, growing best with some overhead shade. The leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, 10–40 cm (4-16 in) long and 5–20 cm (2-8 in) broad.

Cultivation, use, and cultural elaboration of cacao were early and extensive in Mesoamerica. Ceramic vessels with residues from the preparation of cacao beverages have been found at archaeological sites dating back to the Early Formative (1900-900 BC) period. For example, one such vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico dates cacao's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BC. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1900 BC.

The first Europeans to encounter cacao were Christopher Columbus and his crew in 1502, when they captured a canoe at Guanaja that contained a quantity of mysterious-looking "almonds." The first real European knowledge about chocolate came in the form of a beverage which was first introduced to the Spanish at their meeting with Moctezuma in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519. Cortez and others noted the vast quantities of this beverage that the Aztec emperor consumed, and how it was carefully whipped by his attendants beforehand. Examples of cacao beans along with other agricultural products were brought back to Spain at that time, but it seems that the beverage made from cacao was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought from the New World to Spain by Dominican friars to meet Prince Philip (Coe and Coe 1996). Within a century, the culinary and medical uses of chocolate had spread to France, England and elsewhere in Western Europe. Demand for this beverage led the French to establish cacao plantations in the Caribbean, while Spain subsequently developed their cacao plantations in their Philippine colony (Bloom 1998, Coe 1996). The Nahuatl-derived Spanish word cacao entered scientific nomenclature in 1753 after the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus published his taxonomic binomial system and coined the genus and species Theobroma ("food of the gods") cacao.

Theobroma cacao

Traditional pre-Hispanic beverages made with cacao are still consumed in Mesoamerica. These include the Oaxacan beverage known as tejate.

The Herbarium at Kew contains both dried and alcohol-preserved specimens of Theobroma cacao. The details of 12 of these can be viewed in the Herbarium Catalogue. These include images of specimens from the herbaria of George Bentham (1800-1884, author of the classic Handbook of the British Flora) and William Hooker (1785-1865, Kew’s first official Director).

There are 107 specimens of Theobroma cacao in the Economic Botany Collection, one of the behind-the-scenes areas of Kew. These include samples of bark, shells, beans, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, nibs (the dried and roasted kernel of the cocoa bean that remains after the husk has been removed), pods, powder, fruit, paste, leaves, flowers and even a carved wooden elephant. These items can be examined by by appointment bona fide researchers from around the world. To view a selection of this collection and to discover more about the chocolate tree, visit the Plants+People exhibition in Museum No. 1.

Theobroma cacao can be seen in Kew’s Princess of Wales Conservatory, and also in the Palm House, which displays plants from tropical rainforests, including those of economic value such as banana (Musa), rubber (Hevea), cotton (Gossypium) and coffee (Coffea).