The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao (signed)

Young, Allen M. (signed)

ISBN 10: 1560983574 / ISBN 13: 9781560983576

Published by Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington & London, 1994

About this Item

Washington & London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. SIGNED by the AUTHOR directly on the title page (his signature only, NOT personalized to anyone). SIGNED copies are SCARCE. "SIGNED COPY" sticker on the front. Good condition in a bright and shiny Very Good dust jacket. NO chips, tears or fading. The book itself is rated only Good due to several pages with a paper clip impression along the top edge. Pages are otherwise clean and unmarked. Sharp corners. NO owner's name or bookplate. NOT a remainder. NOT a library discard. 2017. First printing of the First Edition with complete number row (54321) on the copyright page. Well illustrated with map, numerous drawings and b/w photos in the text, plus an 8 page section of full color photos on glossy stock. Bound in the original light brown boards with silver-stamped dark green cloth spine. Complete with dust jacket. From the publisher: "The Chocolate Tree chronicles the natural and cultural history of Theobroma cacao and explores its ecological niche. Tracing cacao's "journey" out of the rain forest, into pre-Columbian gardens, and then onto plantations adjacent to rain forests, Allen M. Young describes the production of this essential crop, explaining how the seeds are extracted from the large, colorful pods. He details the environmental price of Europeanized cultivation, and ways that current reclamation efforts for New World rain forests can improve the natural ecology of the cacao tree. Recounting more than a dozen years of ecological fieldwork in and around cacao plantations in Costa Rica, Young reviews his research into the problem of poor levels of natural pollination on plantations. He recalls encounters with sloths, toucans, butterflies, giant tarantula hawk wasps, and other creatures found in cacao groves. Among these creatures Young discovered a tiny fly that provides a vital link between the chocolate tree and its original rain forest habitat. This discovery leads him to conclude that cacao trees in cultivation today may have lost their original insect pollinators due to the plants' long history of agricultural manipulation.". SIGNED by the AUTHOR (his signature only). First Printing of the First Edition. Hardcover. Good condition/Very Good dust jacket. Illus. by NOT a library discard. 8vo. xv, 200pp. + 8 color plates. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping.

Seller Inventory # 030788

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao (signed)
• Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington & London
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560983574
• ISBN 13: 9781560983576
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: NOT a library discard
• Edition: First Printing of the First Edition.
• Condition: Good condition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good dust jacket
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Cooking / Food / Beverages

About this title

Synopsis

The Chocolate Tree chronicles the natural and cultural history of Theobroma cacao and explores its ecological niche. Tracing cacao's "journey" out of the rain forest, into pre-Columbian gardens, and then onto plantations adjacent to rain forests, Allen M. Young describes the production of this essential crop, explaining how the seeds are extracted from the large, colorful pods. He details the environmental price of Europeanized cultivation, and ways that current reclamation efforts for New World rain forests can improve the natural ecology of the cacao tree.
Recounting more than a dozen years of ecological fieldwork in and around cacao plantations in Costa Rica, Young reviews his research into the problem of poor levels of natural pollination on plantations. He recalls encounters with sloths, toucans, butterflies, giant tarantula hawk wasps, and other creatures found in cacao groves. Among these creatures Young discovered a tiny fly that provides a vital link between the chocolate tree and its original rain forest habitat. This discovery leads him to conclude that cacao trees in cultivation today may have lost their original insect pollinators due to the plants' long history of agricultural manipulation.

Reviews

Young's engaging and scholarly book examines the natural history of cacao and its transformation into a cultivated crop of ancient and modern peoples and its ecological connections to the rain forest. Young points out that cacao is among a handful of New World tropical plants that, due to the Spanish conquest of Central America in the late fifteenth century, became a bridge between two distinct spheres of humankind: Western culture and society on one hand, and the ancient and indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica on the other. The author spent a great deal of time researching cacao pollination, and concludes that successful natural pollination of cacao is linked to the ecology of the tropical rain forest, and that the ties between cacao and the rain forest bode well for the future of both economic development and biological conservation in the lowland tropics. George Cohen