Theobroma speciosum Willd. ex Spreng.
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Authority
Cuatrecasas, José. 1964. Cacao and its allies, a taxonomic revision of the genus Theobroma. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 35: 379-614. pl. 1-12.
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Family
Malvaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Types.—Siber: "Hoffmannsegg" in Herbarium Willdenow no. 3680 (B). Spruce 1737, Brazil, Barra do Rio Negro (of T. quinquenervia). Huber 1567, Peru, Ucayali (of var. coriaceum).
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Description
Description - Tree up to 15 mm. tall; trunk about 20 cm. in diameter with light gray, smooth bark; sympodial growth by lateral, subterminal upright shoots; primary branches ternate, usually furcate, spreading; branchlets terete, smooth, more or less pulverulently stellate -pilose, later glabrate, grayish brown; crown rather narrow; stipules subulate, short, stellate-tomentose, soon deciduous. Leaves firmly coriaceous, distichous; petiole robust, sub terete, densely stellate-tomentulose, 8-14 (-20) mm. long, 2-4 mm. thick; blades usually large, ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, broadly rounded or very obtuse and asymmetrical at base, exceptionally (in orthotropic branches) cuneate and symmetrical, attenuate near the apex, abruptly and acutely acuminate, the margin entire or very slightly sinuose, often slightly revolute, 20-40 cm. long, 7-18 cm. broad, the acumen 1.5-2.5 cm. long; lustrous above, green, usually pale brown or olivaceous when dry, glabrous, or with a few stellate hairs on the nerves, the costa and main nerves filiform, conspicuous, the minor veins less noticeable or obsolete, pale cinereous beneath with tawny nervation, the costa thick, very prominent, the 6-8 pairs of secondary nerves prominent, subcurvate ascending, near the margin thinner, curving, decurrent and anastomosing, the inferior pair stronger, forming together with the midrib a trinerved base, the transverse tertiary nerves thin but prominent, 5-15 mm. distant from each other, sometimes the basal more conspicuous, forming together with main nerves a basally 4- or 5-nerved leaf; minor veins prominulous, reticulate; main nerves glabrous or subglabrous with sparse, stellate hairs and scattered callose dots, the tertiary glabrous or subglabrous, the minor reticulate veins and the areoles covered by dense minute whitish sericeous tomentum of stellate hairs. Inflorescences on trunk, forming delicate panicles gathered in manyflowered bunches borne on woody, short, tuberculose branches, often very showy with up to 250 dark-red or purplish-red fragrant flowers; panicles 3-10 cm. long, dichotomously furcate-branched from the base, the branches thin but rigid, reddish and covered with a minute, whitish tomentum, the terminal branchlets (peduncles) thin, flexuous, 10-25 mm. long, 3 bracteolate and articulate to the pedicel at apex; pedicels slender, 5-20 mm. long, minutely tomentulose; bracteoles minute, linear or linear-triangular, 1-2 mm. long, 0.2-0.5 mm. wide, very soon deciduous; buds ovoid, 7-9 mm. high, rather reddish, with 5 longitudinal, white-tomentose, prominulous commissural lines, sparsely stellate-pilose; sepals rather thick, oblong, subobovate-oblong, attenuate toward the base, abruptly narrowed and subobtuse at apex, the margin incurved with a minutely, whitish tomentulose strip inside, the apex shortly cucullate-inflexed, the inside purplish and glabrous, except for glandular trichomes at base, the outside sparingly stellate-pilose, usually one free and the others united one third or almost completely by pairs, 10-12 mm. long, 3.5-4 mm. broad; petal-hoods thick-membranaceous, trinervate, whitish with red lines, oblong-obovoid, attenuate-clawed at base, rounded cucullate at apex, with sparse, thin, spreading hairs outside, 6-7 mm. long, about 4 mm. broad; petal-lamina rather thick, red or dark red, transversely elliptic, subtruncate, slightly emarginate and mucronulate at apex, abruptly cuneate-attenuate at base, entire or slightly erose at margin, conspicuously (especially by transmitted light) reticulate-veined, 5-7.5 mm. long, 7-9 mm. broad; androecium tube thick, about 2-3.5 mm. high, sparsely stellate-pilose; staminodes purplish red, subulate, thick, the apex thinner and curled, minutely muricate-pilose, 5-7 mm. long, 1.2-1.8 mm. wide; filaments glabrous, about 2 mm. long, curved, dilated at base, minutely 3-furcate at apex, triantheriferous ; anther lobes ellipsoid, about 0.4 mm. long; ovary ovoid-ellipsoid, 2-3 mm. long, 5-ridged, whitish velvety-tomentose; styles 5, subfiliform, 1 .2-2 mm. long, glabrous, connivent, only united at base. Fruit globose-ellipsoid, about 10 cm. long and 7-8 cm. broad, almost smooth, with 5 more or less conspicuous (when dry depressed) costae, shortly and densely tomentose-velvety, yellow when ripe; pericarp about 5-6 mm. thick, the inner layer coriaceous, smooth, very hard, about 0.5-1 mm. thick, the middle tissue about 3-4 mm., carnose, the outer layer coriaceous but less hard than the innermost and becoming rugose after the shrinking of the intermediate layer by drying; seeds about 20-26, surrounded by whitish, sweet, scentless pulp, ovoid-oblong or ellipsoid-oblong, 24-26 mm. long, 13-14 mm. broad, 10-12 mm. thick, the episperm thick (about 1 mm.), coriaceous with the middle layer becoming gelatinous; embryo white, oblong, covered by a very thick pellicle, 22-24 mm. long, 10-11.5 mm. broad, 9-10 mm. thick; germination epigeous.
Uses - Uses.—The pulp is eaten by natives. The seeds are used very occasionally to prepare low quality chocolate.
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Discussion
The leaves of the type of T. speciosum are long-petiolate, cuneate and trinerved at the base. Theobroma quinquenervium Bernoulli was described from a specimen with short-petiolate, broadly oblong leaves, asymmetrically rounded at the base. In the first type the margins of the leaves are close and parallel to the prominent, basal pair of secondary nerves; in the second the margins of the leaves are broadened and remote from the prominent basal pair of nerves, and an additional lower tertiary nerve on each side makes the base of the blade somewhat 5-nerved. The latter type of blade, borne on a short, stout petiole, is the common one in the species. Leaves with slender, long petioles, thickened at both ends, and cuneate blades are seldom found; they appear on young, orthotropic terminal branches. This dimorphism was already noticed by Huber who first united T. quinquenervium and T. speciosum. The type specimen was collected near Belém de Pará by Siber who was sent on a collecting trip to Brazil by Hoffmannsegg; it is preserved in the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Museum in the Willdenow Herbarium. I have been able to study this specimen thanks to the kindness of Prof. Werdermann and Prof. Melchior. The photograph F.M. 9640 is from a specimen at B now destroyed, which agrees perfectly with the type in the Willdenow Herbarium, of which it was undoubtedly a duplicate. In his monograph, Chevalier made this species a synonym of T. guianense (Aubl.) Gmel., but this is a confused species, the identity of which is discussed in this paper. Spruce and Ducke called attention to beauty of this tree in blossom, according to Spruce "one of the prettiest things I have seen." Theobroma speciosum can grow to be 15 m. high, with a few whorls of dichotomous leafy branches near the top of a long branchless stem, which can bear abundant, large, caulino inflorescences. These may form large cushions of showy, blood-red, wine-red, or purplish-red flowers which give off an intense lemon- or orange-skin odor (Ducke). The outer pulp of the seeds is sweet but scentless. It is said to be easy to grow in gardens.
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Common Names
cacauí, cacauú, cacao-y, cacao-u, cacau, cacaohy, cacau-i, cacao-i, cacaoíllo, cacau-rana, cacao-rana, cacao biaro, cupuy, cupuyh, cacao do matta, cupurana, cacao azedo, cacao sacha, chocolatillo