Jungle crops

I know! Too many birds! So how about some food, for a change? Here are some photos I took on my trip to Timpía, along the lower Río Urubamba:

The pineapple, Ananas comosus. Yes, it's a bromeliad!:


Not so commonly eaten, but much more impressive and provides a nice shade under which to drink the masato. I present you with the breadfruit tree, Artocarpus altilis (warning, possible ssp. of Artocarpus communis):


And now, this one may not look like much, but the world economy would be in even worse straits without coffee, Coffea arabica:


And this is the main jungle food - yuca. It's also known as cassava, although it's under the name yucca that I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the forest (and I drank it everyday too, as the alcoholic beverage known as masato). It's also called Manihot esculenta:


Okay, it's not really food, but it's very useful and pernicious at the same time (i.e.: important). The coca plant, Erythroxylum coca:


Possibly more addictive, the sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum:


But without it who would eat the bitter seeds of the chocolate tree, Theobroma cacao?


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