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Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum)
- species description

by Marc-A. Wolf

References are found here

Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum (Wildenow ex Sprengel) Schumann, Sterculiaceae) (Fig. 1) (or cupu, pupuaçu, pupu (Bras.), patashte, cupuassu (Engl.), bacau, cacao blanco, pastate, patas (different Latin American countries) and different Indian names) is planted for its fruitflesh of an intensive, characteristic very pleasant taste. This is used to prepare a variety of soft drinks, ice-cream, blancmange and other desserts. The seeds, that come to about 16% of the dry weight (de Souza & Cravo 1996c [in prep.]) can be used to derive a cacao-butter like product (Ribeiro 1992); the content of fat in the seeds is about 50%. Until now cupuaçu is mainly used for the local or national market, but a growing international interest will certainly lead to a strong increase of cultivated area, which already can be seen looking at the development of the production in Rondônia from 1989 to 1992, which increased 10-fold to 200t of fruit flesh (equivalent to about 600t of fruit) that year (Ribeiro 1992): The current offer does not match the demand (Venturieri 1993). The production per plant reaches a plateau of about 20 to 30 fruits with a monocultural planting spacing of 6 m by 6 m, that is about 2800 kg of fruit flesh/ha and year (Venturieri 1993). During the harvest of the season 1996 the price per fruit at the market of Manaus was between 70 cent and 2 $ depending on size and quality of the fruit. The price of frozen fruit flesh outside the season was as high as up to 16 $ per kilo as observed in local supermarkets. Like castanha also cupuaçu is well adapted to the poor clayey soils of the terra firme of Amazônia, but is also well responding to better site conditions (Venturieri 1993).


3.5-year-old cupuacu tree

Another 3.5-year-old cupuacu tree

Flower of cupuacu

4-year-old Cupuacu tree with fruit

Fig. 1 Photos of 3.5-year-old cupuaçus growing at the SHIFT-Experiment: A big exemplar with fruit growing in a plot of another AF-System ("system 1") (top left) and a rather typical exemplar of plot "b11" (top right). Cupuaçu flower of about 2 cm diameter inserted in an older branch (bottom left), and cupuaçu fruit (bottom right). Due to occurrence of a pest (see text) crown architecture for most plants of the experiment is disturbed, many individuals only show one stem section. The specimen with the fruit at bottom to the right shows regular branching (trichotomy). The fruit have a length of around 20 cm.

Due to a certain tolerance to flooding, cupuaçu is successfully planted in the regularly inundated varzea of the Amazônas. If grown in full sun, it needs a very good supply with water and nutrients but then reaches highest yield (de Souza 1996a [pers. comm.]). Nevertheless, the young plant needs a certain shading during its juvenile phase (SHIFT (ENV-23) 1994 [annual report 1993, unpubl.]). A main problem of cultivation is the occurrence of witches’-broom (Crinipellis perniciosa (Stahel) Singer), a fungal disease which already suppressed the economic large scale cultivation of cupuaçu’s relative cacao (Theobroma cacao) in Brazil. Among the plants of our experiment only two plants were infected by witches’-broom during 1996. Another experiment nearby - also situated at EMBRAPA-CPAA - was in contrast strongly infected with this disease. Other diseases of cupuaçu are described by Ribeiro (1992). A further problem is the self-sterility and often partial sterility among plants from different origins (Ribeiro 1992, de Souza 1996b [unpubl.]).

The cupuaçu tree is an understory tree of up to 18 m. When cultivated under better light conditions than in dense forest it usually reaches only up to 8 m (Cavalcante 1991). If grown under optimum conditions, it can begin to produce fruit after two or three years, like in our experiment. If grown in dense forest, it can take the species many more years to reach reproductive state (Ribeiro 1992). The period in which the plant flowers and the number of flowers per plant varies considerably among different progenesis (de Souza 1996b [unpubl.]). For the production of each single fruit the plants produces about 200 flowers (Venturieri 1993). Cupuaçu is pollinated mainly by different species of small sting-less bees (Venturieri 1993). The fruit which develops within four to five months after flowering (harvest: Jan. to Jun. for Manaus) has a typical fresh weight of about 800 to 1500g with a maximum range reported by Ribeiro (1992) of 300g to 4000g. Usually it contains between 20 to 50 seeds, that do not have any dormancy (Cavalcante 1991). A seedless variant called "mamao" is known. Fruit of wild cupuaçu are eaten (and the seeds are spread) by mammals like capuchin monkey (Cebus apella), agouti (Dasyprocta spp.) and paca (Agouti paca) (Smith 1992). Cupuaçu is a native species of the natural forest of the terra firme of the State of Para (South-eastern Amazônia) and is now cultivated in small scale throughout Amazônia all along the rivers Amazônas, Rio Negro, Juruá, Caquetá and parts of the Orinoco (Smith 1992). Climate-conditions are (considering both natural occurrence and plantations/experimental areas): Mean annual temperature between 21.6oC and 27.5oC, mean rel. humidity 77 % to 88 %, total precipitation/year between 1900 mm and 3100 mm (Diniz & Bastos 1980). Equal distribution of the rain throughout the year is of more importance than total amount (de Souza 1996b [unpubl.]). This is especially true for young cupuaçu because of its rooting pattern: Cupuaçu forms a tap-root, but the main share of the absorbing fine roots is concentrated in the first 10 cm of the soil (Haag 1997 [unpubl.]). This explains why shading during the establishment phase is regularly found to be of importance (Venturieri 1993, de Souza 1996a [pers. comm.]).

The growth pattern of cupuaçu is different from those of castanha: Cupuaçu is showing monopodial but rhythmic growth (Massart’s model (Halle et al. 1978)): The apical meristem interrupts growth forming a terminal bud for some time while a trichotomous branching forms: After about 100 to 150 cm of stem (Venturieri 1993) (between 47 and 106 cm in our experiment) three branches are formed. Later the stem continues its growth - interrupted some months later by forming the next trichotom. Due to occurrence of a pest (probably beetles of the family Curculionidae and others (Ribeiro 1992), which destroyed the meristems of stem and branches only few plants of this experiment show the natural growth pattern. The effect of this disturbed crown architecture on allometry of the species will be discussed later in this work. Leaves are formed in flushes but time and intensity of the flushes differed greatly among individuals in this experiment. Like castanha, cupuaçu also forms a wide crown near to the ground when grown in open sun, which is an advantage for the fruit production, as the fruits, which are sensitive to mechanical damage drop from a lower height when mature. Also for pruning branches affected by witches’-broom this low crown is of advantage. Regarding allometrics this growth pattern increases the proportion of the dry matter of branches and leaves in comparison to that of the stem – in contrast to trees grown under shade.



For citation refer to:

WOLF, M.-A. (1997). Accumulation of biomass and nutrients in the aboveground organs of four local tree species in monoculture and polyculture systems in central Amazonia. German "Diplom"-thesis [unpubl.]. Technische Universität Braunschweig.


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Marc-A. Wolf (Dipl.-Geoökol.)
Neue Weinsteige 54
D-70180 Stuttgart
Germany
Tel: +49 (0)711 641 2271 (Institute)
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Version 3.0 of 27 November 1998. Suggestions and questions are welcome.
© 1997, 1998 Marc-A. Wolf
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