JARILLA CHOCOLA

This member of the Caricaceae family was given this name by Paul Carpenter Standley in 1937. It is found in the hills of El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, growing in a well drained soil with some water and lots of sun. The caudex can grow to five centimetres in diameter, the entire plant to 100 centimetres in height. The flowers are white. The genera is dioecious: Male or female plants. The fruit is cool, tart, refreshing and "remotely suggestive of lemons", much liked by locals. The tuber is "good to eat roasted" and important as a wild food "carrying them over the hunger period before the corn harvest".

The genera name after the Spanish name for the plants; jarrilla. This describes the peculiar shape of the fruit, like the classic hispanic clay jarro.

The species name for the fruit is called Chócola and the plant called Kapiáh by the Waríhio native Mexicans of Chihuahua and Sonora. The flowers by Barry Rice, Sarracenia.com.