History of chocolate in Spain In modern Spain, traces of the history of the drink can be seen in the chocolate companies, the chocolate shops and museums. The [Mesoamerican] origin of the cacao tree (to which Linnaeus gave the scientific name Theobroma cacao in 1753) is disputed by modern botanical historians since there are different hypotheses about the region from which it comes. Thus, some theories point to the Amazon region; however, it is estimated that the plant also grew in the wild in other parts of Americas, including the plains of the Orinoco Basin. It is very likely that the Olmecs knew the cacao
Tree and frost, and the seed germinates in the spring. Pine cones may similarly be hoarded by red squirrels, and grizzly bears may help to disperse the seed by raiding squirrel caches. The single extant species of Ginkgophyta ("Ginkgo biloba") has fleshy seeds produced at the ends of short branches on female trees, and "Gnetum", a tropical and subtropical group of gymnosperms produce seeds at the tip of a shoot axis. The earliest trees were tree ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, which grew in forests in the Carboniferous period. The first tree may have been "Wattieza", fossils of which have been found