Plant · P-575

Kola Nut

Cola acuminata

Kola is a tropical evergreen tree in the cacao family, grown for a caffeine-rich seed that is chewed whole as a stimulant, ground into a coffee substitute, or used to flavour soft drinks, ice cream and confectionery. The same seed rates higher for medicine than for food - as a digestive tonic and traditional remedy for migraine, dysentery and the vomiting of fever - and chewing it makes food eaten afterward taste sweeter. It is strictly a wet lowland tropical tree: a minimum below about 13 C stops it cold, and it needs steady year-round warmth and rain rather than a distinct dry season. It is naturally an understorey tree that tolerates shade, but a plantation grown in the open yields more, and a tree does not bear its first nuts until 12 to 15 years old.