It sounds straightforward but, in fact, successful cacao pollination is problematic in many regions. Only around 10%-20% of the flowers produced by a cacao tree are successfully pollinated.

Yet cacao trees, which are the source of chocolate, are vulnerable. I am a passionate chocolate lover and an entomologist who studies cacao pollination.

Cacao grafting consists of implanting a shoot from a promising variety into an adult cacao tree. By making use of the adult root system, grafting young and fresh branches completely replaces the ...

On a trip to Belize more than a decade ago, she encountered cacao trees and learned how the Maya people processed the pods for chocolate. Now living on the Big Island of Hawaii, she says that ...

However, the cacao tree faces a number of threats, such as disease and climate change, but the study reports that knowing more about its genetic history and diversity will help scientists address ...

Cacao trees aren’t going extinct. But a warmer, drier climate in the rain forests of West Africa — the world’s leading producer of cacao — may soon pose a threat to the region’s farmland.

Cacao — which chocolate is made from — was sacred to the ancient Maya, consumed in rituals and used as a currency. The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) itself was linked to Hun Hunahpu, the maize god.

According to a new study published in the journal 'PLoS ONE,' between 15% and 50% of the harvest of cocoa trees in Ghana has been lost due to cacao swollen shoot virus disease (CSSSVD). .

These cacao trees grow the all-important cocoa beans used to create chocolate. Fifty percent of the chocolate in the world originates from cacao trees in West Africa, notably Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

Population genomic analyses of the chocolate tree, Theobroma cacao L., provide insights into its domestication process. Communications Biology, 2018; 1 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s42003-018-0168-6 ...