Scientists have uncovered a surprising find from the Amazon Basin: three new species of plants closely related to Theobroma cacao, the tree that gives us chocolate. This finding, made by examining dried plant specimens in herbaria, reveals that even well-known plant groups can still hold secrets. This research, published in the journal Kew Bulletin, highlights the importance of preserving both natural habitats and scientific collections of plants and animals, especially as more biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon face unprecedented threats from deforestation and climate change. “That there were recently unknown species closely related to Theobroma cacao, which is of huge importance for the production of chocolate and other products, shows how much more work there is to be done to catalogue the vast amount of unknown biodiversity across our planet,” James Richardson, a plant evolutionary biologist at University College Cork in Ireland, told Mongabay. A specimen of one of the new species, Theobroma globosum, collected by Doug Daly. Image courtesy of Doug Daly/New York Botanical Garden. The research team, comprising scientists and students from University College Cork; the University of São Paulo (including lead author Matheus Colli-Silva); the New York Botanical Garden; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., meticulously examined herbarium specimens to identify the new species: Theobroma globosum, T. nervosum, and T. schultesii. These species were originally collected from various locations across the western Amazon Basin, in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Theobroma schultesii, named after botanist Richard E. Schultes, is the tallest of the three new trees, reaching up to 8 meters (26 feet)…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post New relatives of the cacao tree uncovered in old plant collections first appeared on EnviroLink Network.