A Cacao tree is a small tree with leaves like those of a beech and that bears its flowers and fruit directly on old wood. It is grown here along with Coffee in the shade of other protective species.
The young boy standing here in front of a cacao tree is holding two pods full of the precious beans.
Cacao pod and beans
Photo: Michel Tremblay, JBM
UdeM: E01185FP11761
UdeM: E01182FP00250
Coffee is a shade-loving shrub, an incurably wild plant that refuses to be cultivated in orderly rows, demanding that its primitive forest habitat be recreated.
Nothing is more common or more picturesque than the sight of a mountain mule train carrying sacks of Coffee.
In order for half the universe to have its steaming cup of this precious beverage every morning, thousands of men in Arabia, Kenya, Brazil and the Antilles have to wend their way night and day down mountain paths.
A "coffee train".
UdeM: E01182FP00249
Under the Cuban Sun with Marie-Victorin [Jardin botanique de Montréal]
Last Update: 2014-06-18
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Ville de Montréal
