Cacao, the tree that flowers on its trunk

By Maxime·Updated 6 October 2026

The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) is a small tropical tree that grows in the shade of taller trees. Its tiny flowers grow straight from the trunk and branches and are pollinated by midges a few millimetres long; only a small fraction become pods. A pod takes about five months to ripen, and its seeds, fermented and dried, become cocoa beans. Cacao trees start flowering in their third year and give a real crop from about the fifth.

What a cacao tree looks like

Cacao comes from the rainforests of South America and grows naturally under a canopy of taller trees. On farms it is pruned to stay low enough to reach the pods. The strange thing about it is where the fruit grows: flowers, and then ribbed pods about the size of a small rugby ball, hang straight from the trunk and the thick branches.

Each pod holds a few dozen seeds in a sweet white pulp. Those seeds are the cocoa beans.

How cacao grows

1. Young trees need shade: about half shade as seedlings, a little less as they grow.
2. Flowers appear from about the third year. They open on the trunk and last only a day or two.
3. Tiny midges pollinate them. By some estimates, only one flower in 400 to 500 becomes a pod.
4. A pollinated pod ripens in about five months, turning yellow, orange or red depending on the variety.
5. The seeds are scooped out with their pulp, fermented for five to seven days and dried in the sun. Only then do they start to taste of chocolate.

Why cacao will share the shade with our vanilla

Cacao likes what vanilla likes: warmth, damp air and filtered light under a canopy. On our plot the two will share the understorey, the shaded layer beneath the taller plants.

They share a history too. Both come from the Americas, and the Aztecs drank cacao flavoured with vanilla centuries before chocolate reached Europe.

In the series, Elder Koko is the cacao elder: slow, patient and never in a hurry, like a tree that waits five years for its first real crop.

Questions

How long does a cacao tree take to produce?

It starts flowering in its third year, and gives a worthwhile crop from about the fifth year.

What is the difference between cacao and cocoa?

It is the same plant. “Cacao” usually means the tree, the pods and the raw beans; “cocoa” usually means the beans once they are roasted and ground, and the powder.

Who pollinates cacao?

Mostly tiny midges of the family Ceratopogonidae, only 1 to 3 mm long, that breed in damp, rotting leaves on the ground.

How the farm will work