Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens, Cocoa Tree, Theobroma cacao
October 26, 2017. Cocoa Trees are native to Central and South America. This species is now grown throughout the tropical world. This species is assumed to be native in southeastern Mexico but probably not in Jalisco. The cocoa beans, found inside the pods, which grow from the stems and trunk of the plant, are ground to produce chocolate, in its various forms. The beans found in about twenty of the pods shown above is required to produce a pound of cocoa paste.
