Location: Ecuador.
Pound, 1938a [POU38A]. Habit - large vigorous trees. Fruit - long, oval, very warty, slightly bottle necked pods with a somewhat glassy surface. Seed - plump and pale in colour.
Notes: Type of cocoa.
Pound, 1938a [POU38A]. Probably indigenous to Ecuador since wild trees have been found in Ecuador's virgin forest, some of which appeared to be hundreds of years old. Alternative theory is that Nacional cocoa was introduced from the Amazon valley by monkeys or the Incas. However, this seems unlikely since seeds would have had to be transported over the Sierra 11,000 feet high and the Incas are thought to have moved Northwards from Peru and not from the Ecuadorian Oriente. "Nacional" cocoa does occur in the Amazon foothills of the Andes but the wild cocoa in the valley proper belongs to a totally different type.
Early cocoa plantations established from wild cocoa found growing along river banks and the cocoa type became known as 'Nacional'.
In the 1920-1930 decade Nacional cocoa was found to be very susceptible to Witches' Broom.
A possible source of confusion is that some Ecuadorian farmers referred to the "Nacional" type as "criollo" (= local material). They used the name "nacional" for the previously introduced varieties and their descendants, to distinguish them from other more recent introductions. This source of confusion may have already existed when the material was taken to Central America.