Derivation: NICaraguan criollo.
Location: Nicaragua.
Lockwood, 1973a [LOC73A]. Fruit- typical criollo shape, red-brownish colour.
Notes: Lockwood & Gyamfi, 1979 [LOC79A] Selections from Nicaragua, either pure criollos or hybrids with the Costa Rica MATINA type.
Bartley, 1999c [BAR99C] There are no selection known from Nicaragua itself. What is known is material derived from Nicaraguan varieties. These are:
1. Progenies of introductions into Trinidad by Hart in 1893 of seeds from what he designated as Nicaraguan criollo representing the variety that called the "cacao del pais" or "cacao Real". Hart encouraged the planting of these progenies and their descendants and they became fairly widely dispersed in Trinidad. Their large seeds made them favourites for selection according to the criteria adopted by Pound and Cheesman. As a result around 20 of the ICS clones could be classified as belonging to this group.
The classification of material as "Nicaraguan criollo" is based on the relationships to the plants known to be descendants of the original introductions. It is possible that some of the clones may have been contaminated by other varieties in Nicaragua. But this could never have been done by "Matina" from Costa Rica. Confusion may have arisen by the description of a type as "a variety similar to that called 'Matina'".
Nearly all the ICS clone attributable to the variety have green fruits and all references to cacao in Nicaragua mention only green fruits.
Because of the importance Hart gave to this material he made sure it was distributed to other countries. This was usually from the trees with the 'pentagona' shaped fruits. Material was sent to Dominica. Ghana received both 'Nicaraguan criollo' and 'Pentagona' which were planted in the Aburi Botanic Gardens.
2. The only other materail related to Nicaragua is that from Spencer's travels in Central America in 1943. He wrote of collecting two red fruits of a criollo type. He also wrote that "criollo del pais" had virtually disappeared and since the only trees he found were isolated what he obtained were probabl contaminated by other varieties in the vicinity. No official report of the expedition has been seen.
Location: Indonesia.