Theobroma cacao L.
| Family: | STERCULIACEAE |
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| Sub-Family: | Not available | ||||
| English Name: | Cocco | ||||
| Synonym: | Cacao sativa Aubl | ||||
| Common Name: | Cacao, Cocoa tree, Chocolate nut tree | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | November – May | ||||
| Distribution: | Widely cultivated in the tropics; native of Tropical America | ||||
| Habitat: | Cultivated | ||||
| Uses: | Nut edible, fruit edible, chocolate production | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | Small, evergreen trees. Leaves alternate, large, elliptic-oblong, entire, leathery. Flowers cauliflorous, small. Petals hooded at base. Staminal tube short with 5 petaloid elongate staminodes and 2 or 3 sessile anthers. Ovary sessile, 5-loculed; ovules many in each locule; stigma 5-lobed. Fruit a large woody drupe, ellipsoid-ovoid, smooth or ribbed, reddish yellow, 5-loculed each with a double row of almond-like seeds embedded in white-pinkish or brownish mucilaginous aromatic pulp. | ||||