Theobroma cacao beans, along with other agricultural products, were brought back to Spain at that time, but it seems the beverage made from cacao was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought from the New World to Spain by Dominican friars to meet Prince Philip. Within a century, chocolate had spread to France, England and elsewhere in Western Europe. Demand for this beverage led the French to establish cacao plantations in the Caribbean, while Spain subsequently developed their cacao plantations in their Venezuelan and Philippine colonies (Bloom 1998, Coe 1996). A painting by Dutch Golden Age artist
North-West University Botanical Garden rockery. Some more common plant genera represented in the garden include Acacia, Aloe, Bonatea, Crinum, Dierama, Encephalartos, Eucomis, Eulophia, Euphorbia, Gasteria, Gladiolus, Haworthia, Hypoxis, Indigofera, Kniphofia, Plectranthus, Podocarpus, Polygala, Scadoxus, Searsia, Stapelia and Zantedeschia. In the tropical greenhouse a variety of tropical and subtropical plants from all over the world can be found. Some of the plants include a variety of food and medicinal plants including "Coffea arabica" (coffee), "Camellia sinensis" (tea), "Vanilla planifolia" (vanilla), "Saccharum officinarum" (sugarcane), "Cinnamomum zeylanicum" (cinnamon), "Oryza sativa" (rice), "Theobroma cacao" (cacao), "Siphonochilus aethiopicus" (wild ginger), "Warburghia salutaris" (pepper bark tree) and "Piper nigrum" (pepper).