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Three New Species of Theobroma
Three new species of Theobroma (the genus to which T. cacao, the source of chocolate, belongs), have been described from South America. This discovery was made during the course of a taxonomic revision of the genus undertaken by Matheus Colli-Silva of the University of Sao Paulo.
During the preparation of a taxonomic revision of Theobroma, three new species were found: Theobroma globosum, T. nervosum and T. schultesii. The first two are distributed in the Amazon Basin and the latter in the Amazon Basin and in Pacific Coastal regions to the west of the Andes mountains. This is the first revision of this group of species for over sixty years. The species were described on the basis of extensive studies of herbarium specimens housed in herbaria in Europe, North and South America. To find new species in a genus that contains economically important species such as T. cacao and T. grandiflorum is extraordinary. This work highlights the importance of maintaining these collections and making them physically accessible to researchers from around the world as they will undoubtedly reveal many more species not yet described by scientists.