Theobroma cacao L.

കൊക്കോ

Family : STERCULIACEAE

Synonym : Cacao sativa Aubl. 

Common Names : Kokko, Cocco, Cacao, Cocoa Tree, Chocolate Nut tree

Flowering Period : November-May

Distribution : Widely cultivated in the tropics; native of Tropical America

Habitat : Cultivated

Uses : Nut edible, fruit edible, chocolate production

Key Characters :

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.