The cacao tree yields its first crop at 3-4 years old. It is an adult plant at 10. It produces from 300 to 1,000 pounds of cocoa per acre for about 50 years. The leaves of Cacao are smooth bright green, oblong, about 15cm by 8cm. It is deciduous, it looses it's leaves, with new leaf growth in spurts 2 to 4 times a year. Shade leaves are longer than sun leaves in canopy area. Young leaves are reddish, making them less affected by the intense tropical sun and hang vertically to minimize sun damage. What is really fascinating about Cacao leaves is that they can move 90 degrees from vertical to horizontal and back to get better sun access and to protect young leaves! This is done with a node at the base of the leaf which changes its stiffness with temperature. Naturally Cacao grows under heavy rainforest canopy. The Cacao Tree grows in lowland tropical forests with little seasonality. It needs a consistent climate: temperatures of 21 to 32 degrees Celsius year round -- never lower than 15 C, and 100 to 250 cm of rainfall, well distributed throughout the year with no month less than 10 cm. The flowers (and the fruit) are on the trunk of the tree, and it flowers (and fruits) all year long. It takes 5 to 8 months, to progress from blossom bud to ripe fruit. Cacao is pollinated by midges (gnat-like insects) and occasionally by bats. Pollination usually occurs in the morning and the flowers die in 24 hrs if not pollinated! The insects that pollinate Cacao live in the rainforest. They require humid shade with a wide range of species and decaying matter on the ground; the natural habitat of Cacao.
	The Cacao Tree is a shade tolerant, moisture loving, understory rainforest tree. It naturally favors riparian zones so often in the wild is found along rivers. The trees live for up to 100 years and grow to a height of 15 meters. The main stem of the tree is called the Chupon and the leaves budding off of the chupon (where a fruit was) are a fan. When grown from seed, the Chupon grows single for 1.5 meters and then spreads into layers.
	The seeds are encased in a large colorful pod which grows close to the tree Cacao Pod after a flower. The large pod is green while maturing and and turns yellow, orange, red or purple when ripe The pods range from about 10 cm to greater than 40 cm in length! Fruits are produced throughout the year, simultaneous with more flowering. It takes take 4 to 5 months to achieve the pod size, and then yet another month to ripen! A ripe pod can be left on the tree for 2 or 3 weeks without spoiling. It is important for the flavor that it is harvested only when ripe, although it will not open and lose it's seeds when overripe. If separated from the pod the seeds soon become infertile, but retain their fertility for a long time within the pod. The pulp of the fruit is edible, but it is NOTHING like Chocolate. It is yellow, slippery and sweet and a bit less dense than an apple. Seeds are dispersed by monkeys and other small mammals which break through the pod wall to eat the pulp.
	The cacao tree fruit is a huge berry called cacao pod, usually egg or melon-shaped, 5 to 12 inches long and 3 to 5 inches wide. The cacao pod contains 30 to 40 seeds. It takes 20 to 25 pods to get 2 pounds of cocoa. Once the tree reaches maturity, fruit pods will sprout from its trunk and branches. The golden-red to purple fruit pods turn brown at maturity, at which time they are split open and the insides scooped out. Each pod generally produces 20 to 40 almond-shaped cacao beans. After the cacao beans are removed from the fruit, they undergo fermentation, a process that reduces their bitterness and helps develop their heady aroma. After they are dried the beans are ready to be cleaned, graded, packed, and shipped for processing into chocolate products. Once the beans are selected, they are roasted and shelled to obtain the center cacao kernel, or nib. To transform the cacao kernels into the thick, dark-brown paste called chocolate liquor, the nibs are ground between large heated rollers in high-speed mills.

Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree. The bark is harvested during the rainy season when it's more pliable. When dried, it curls into long quills, which are either cut into lengths and sold as cinnamon sticks, or ground into powder.
Oil of cinnamon comes from the pods of the cinnamon tree and is used as a flavoring, as well as a medicinal.

	Cinnamon Bark
	Cinnamon Branch
	Cinnamon buds

Cloves are the rich, brown, dried, unopened flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, an evergreen tree in the myrtle family. The name comes from the French "clou" meaning nail.
The clove is an evergreen tree from 30-40 feet in height, with a yellowish bark. It bears opposite ovate leaves that are 4 inches long and 2 inches wide. The flowers are red and white, growing in terminal cluster. The fruit is a 1- or 2-seeded berry.

	Fresh cloves
	Dried Cloves
	Clove Tree
	Clove Trees
	Ripe Clove Fruit

Nutmeg is not a nut, but the kernel of an apricot-like fruit. Mace is an arillus, a thin leathery tissue between the stone and the pulp; it is bright red to purple when harvested, but after drying changes to a amber.
Whole nutmegs will also keep their flavour much longer. The pulp of the nutmeg fruit is tough, almost woody, and very sour. In Indonesia, it is used to make a delicious jam with pleasant nutmeg aroma (selei buah pala).

	Ripe Nutmeg
	Nutmeg

The ginger plant likes to grow in rich soil, in shady places in Tropical Rainforests. Ginger needs between 1800-2000 mm of rainfall each year.
Ginger is a herbaceous perennial. The seeds germinate and the plant will grow up to 1m high. In the first year the fleshy rhizome (underground stem) develops. At the end of the growing season the leaves die back. The rhizome then lies largely dormant until the following spring.
When spring arrives one or more stems will grow up from little buds on the rhizome. These then open out into thin grass-like leaves. The leaves then make food. New rhizome grows, and some years a separate stem emerges directly from the rhizome which turns into a flower. If the flower is pollinated by butterflies, seeds form. When they germinate totally new ginger plants will grow.
In the autumn the leaves and flower stalk (if there is one) die back to the rhizome which remains largely dormant again until the next year.
There are many slightly different varieties of ginger. As the plant spreads through its habitat, or is introduced by man into new places, the process of natural selection ensures that no two areas of ginger are exactly the same. The most useful part of the ginger plant for man is the rhizome (root). It can be used fresh to make medicine; to flavour food; to preserve food; or by combining with sugar, salt or vinegar, to make food. The rhizome can also be dried in the sun. This leads to a change in the quality of the root. It becomes more pungent. It has slightly different medicinal uses and is used to flavour food in different ways. Some native people use the ginger shoots and leafstalks in their cooking. Ginger flowers are very pretty.

	Ginger Flower
	Ginger Plant w/ Flowers