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Theobroma Cacau
This fruit is the size of a ones finger to the end of the palm. Its flower is small and is the size of your knuckle to the tip of the pinky. The color of the flower is yellow and has some fluff on it. This fluff feels very cotton like and seems very unusual. We think that this is done by an animal, possibly its pollinator; however, there is no clarification or conclusion towards that theory. In addition, the fruit is also covered in this fluff. The texture of the fruit is very hard and firm with a size of about 11 centimeters. This fruit's tree has leaves that are shaped in an ovate and elliptical shape. By length, the leaves are 31 centimeters, and by the width they are 11 centimeters. The leaf margins are entire. Moreover, its texture is very waxy and deeply covered with veins.
We found this fruit tree in a very dark area of the SAS rainforest. They was hardly any light, so there were a lot of insects that were lurking around. We think that this tree has made an adaption to have quite big leaves to capture sunlight to help with photosynthesis. The soil around this tree was very dark in color. There were a lot of decomposing leaves that had fallen. The roots were not completely covered in soil, so we were easily able to identify the root system: buttress.
Spotted on Mar 1, 2013
Submitted on Mar 1, 2013
1 Comment
Nice description!