The Conservatory Rainforest: Chocolate Lovers’ Lane
Posted in Adult Education, Around the Garden, The Edible Garden on January 19 2012, by Joyce Newman
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, sign up for “The Temptation of Chocolate” with NYBG expert Jessica Bohn, Saturday, February 11 at the Midtown Education Center.
Did you know the main ingredient in chocolate comes from the fruit of the cacao tree? Perhaps you read our earlier article on “cauliflory” in trees like this one. Lucky for us there are cacao trees (Theobroma cacao) thriving in The New York Botanical Garden’s tropical rainforest, a part of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. In fact, two of our cacao trees now have cocoa bean pods growing on them, each one about six inches long and dark brown.