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Jul. 11th, 2015 at 7:47 AM
Chocolate and Midges
The flowering Theobroma cacao tree relies on pollinators to reproduce, and successful fertilization creates the fruit that yields the cocoa beans so many of us love to eat, with lots of sugar and fat mixed in, as chocolate. We tend to think of bees when we think of pollinators, but for feeding our chocolate addictions, we have to thank midges – insects about the size of a pinhead. They belong to a family of small biting flies called Ceratopogonidae.
Theobroma (which translates to “food of the gods”) cacao is a small tropical tree that likes to grow in the shade of taller trees. Once it reaches maturity, the tree continuously produces small pink or white flowers only 1 – 2 centimeters in diameter along the trunk and lower branches. Due to their small size and relatively complicated structure, midges are the only insect which can navigate the flowers and reach the pollen.
Only about 5% of cacao flowers are pollinated. The ones that are will become cacao pods – the oval fruit of the cacao tree. If the pod fully matures over 5 to 8 months, it will eventually contain about 20 to 60 seeds – the cocoa beans. The seeds cannot be released from the pods without human or animal assistance. In the rainforest, monkey, birds, and other animals will open the pod, eat the sweet white pulp of the pod, and spit out the bitter seeds.
The popularity of chocolate has lead to the creation of large cacao tree plantations, often by clearing the rainforest. This puts the trees in the sun, but midges prefer shade. They like decaying plant material on the humid forest floor for habitat and reproducing. This has led to fewer midges on plantations and pollination rates well below the 5% expected.
Some farmers have learned to farm within the forest to ensure the midges find their trees while also keeping the rainforest relatively intact. On existing plantations, scientists have recommended spreading recently cut banana leaves on the soil to provide habitat for the midges. This alone has helped increase pollination by 15%, but it’s still below normal pollination rates. Perhaps that’s because cacao flowers normally produce 75 different aroma ingredients to attract midges, but on plantations, the flowers only produce a few of those.
Ultimately, if farmers are going to keep feeding our chocolate addiction, they may have to move their farms back into the rainforest. Quite simply, if the midges aren’t happy, we don’t get chocolate.
- RE
Photo Credit:
Tree: Luisovalles - http://bit.ly/1fhzVbH
Flower: Domste - http://bit.ly/1GPcPna
Chocolates: Klaus Höpfner - http://bit.ly/1N37sSe
References:
http://bit.ly/1GZhZyS
http://1.usa.gov/1Liej9d
http://bit.ly/1CdVf6T
http://bit.ly/1LfHKfi
(From The Earth Story FB pg)
Comments
At Harvard's Glaass Flowwers collection they have beautiful glass models of the flowers and fruit. I used to have a bunch of postcards from there but since sent them all.