Theobroma cacao Theobroma cacao Theobroma cacao, also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae, native to the deep tropical regions of the Americas. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make cocoa mass, cocoa powder, confectionery, ganache and chocolate. Leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, long and broad. The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older branches; this is known as cauliflory. The flowers are small, diameter, with pink calyx. The floral formula is ✶ K5 C5 A(5°+5²) (5). While many of the world's flowers are pollinated
Cacao yellow mosaic virus it can experimentally infect a number of other dicots including "Chenopodium amaranticolor", "Chenopodium quinoa", "Tetragonia expansa", "Vinca rosea", "Nicotinia clevelandii", and "Nicandra phsalodes". Cacao yellow mosaic virus Cacao yellow mosaic virus (CYMV) is a virus in the family Tymoviridae that infects cacao trees in Sierra Leone. CYMV, like other "Tymoviridae" are non-enveloped viruses, surrounded by a capsid approximately 30 nanometers wide. The viral capsid has T = 3 symmetry. "Tymoviridae" have positive-sense single-stranded RNA genomes approximately 6 kilobases long. In the cacao tree, CYMV infection leads to the appearance of large circular yellow blotches on the leaves. Infected trees are