Tetracera sp.

This fragrant shrub is very remarkable. Bees love the honey flowers, there are thousands of them around it! Fine sweet fragrance. Tetracera loureiri is one of the most valued herbs in Thai traditional medicine.

Close related species - Tetracera loureiri (Tetracera fragrans), Tetracera indica.

Theobroma bicolor

Tree to 12 m. Fruit ellipsoid, 15-20 x 10-11 cm, 0.5-3 kg, gray or greenish before maturity, yellow or yellowish brown at maturity; aril cream to yellow.

This fast growing tree has a small canopy, and can be intercropped with many tree species. It prefers alluvial soils and tolerates minimal flooding. Some seem adapted to deep and prolonged flooding. Macambo also does well in upland environments. The tree slowly increases in size as it ages, and can be very productive. It coppices fairly well, and can produce fruit at times when other fruits are scarce.

Aril eaten fresh or used to prepare juice or ice creams. Traditionally mixed with achiote (Bixa orellana L.) and sugar to make a sweet dessert. The seeds are consumed roasted, boiled, in pastry, and to prepare chocolate. The bad quality fruit are used to animal food.

Theobroma cacao

Varieties: Red , Yellow. Season: October-January. This beautiful tree has large dark green leaves that shade the fruit pods which grow directly from the trunk and branches. The flesh is eaten as a dessert, and the seeds are the raw material of chocolate. Hot chocolate can be made by drying the seeds, roasting, grinding, and adding milk. Chocolate beans were used as money by the Maya Indians of Central America. The red pods are larger and have more abundant flesh. Cocoa is prepared by grinding the beans into a paste between hot rollers and mixing it with sugar and starch, part of the fat being removed. Chocolate is prepared in much the same way, but the fat is retained. Oil of Theobroma or butter is a yellowish white solid, with an odor resembling that of cocoa, taste bland and agreeable; generally extracted by expression. It is used as an ingredient in cosmetic ointments and in pharmacy for coating pills and preparing suppositories. It has excellent emollient properties and is used to soften and protect chapped hands and lips. Theobromine, the alkaloid contained in the beans, resembles caffeine in its action, but its effect on the central nervous system is less powerful. Its action on muscle, the kidneys and the heart is more pronounced. It is used principally for its effect due to stimulation of the renal epithelium; it is especially useful when there is an accumulation of fluid in the body resulting from cardiac failure, when it is often given with digitalis to relieve dilatation. It is also employed in high blood pressure as it dilates the blood-vessels. It is best administered in powders or cachets. See Article about Drink of the Gods.

Theobroma grandiflorum

A small to medium tree in the Rainforest canopy which belongs to the Chocolate family and can reach up to 60Ft Rainforest regions with it seeds being dispersed by birds and monkeys which feast on the tasty fruit pulp. Indigenous tribes as well as local communities along the Amazon have cultivated Cupuacu as a primary food source for generations. In remote times, Cupuacu seeds were traded along the Rio Negro and Upper Orinoco rivers where river tribes drink Cupuacu juice after it has been blessed by a shaman to facilitate difficult births. Cupuacu fruit has been a primary food source in the Rainforest for both indigenous tribes and animals. It is about the size of a cantaloupe and is highly prized for its creamy exotic tasting pulp. The pulp occupies approximately one-third of the fruit and is used throughout Brazil and Peru to make fresh juice, ice cream, jam and tarts. The fruit ripens in the rainy months from January to April and is considered a culinary delicacy in South American cities where demand outstrips supply. Like chocolate, the fruit has a large center seed pod filled with "beans", which the Tikuna tribe utilize for abdominal pains. Ethnomedical properties: nutritive, stimulant, tonic.

Zombia antillarum, Chamaerops antillarum, Coccothrinax anomala

A medium sized, clumping fan palm. Has a woven like mat of fibres, with downward pointing spines on the trunk. Culture: Sunny, moist, but well drained position. Rather slow. Min. Temperature: 28F.