Jarilla chocola - Chocola

This extraordinary papaya relative is a dry deciduous, perennial herb to about 1 m tall that grows upright stems with broad, lobed leaves from a succulent underground tuber. The white and pink flowers are followed by remarkable pink fruits with five conspicuous ridges. The fruits are edible and have a very pleasant scent. Jarilla chocola is widespread in valleys, canyons and deciduous forests along Mexico's Pacific coast from the State of Sonora to Guatemala and El Salvador at elevations below 1300 m. The fruits contain a white pulp with a creamy consistency and a slightly acidic taste, evoking that of a lemon. The starchy tubers could also be an interesting crop in their own right, comparable to potatoes. In Chihuahua in northern Mexico, the locals eat the root raw or toasted and the fruit raw. Jarilla chocola is little known outside of Mexico and even less commonly cultivated. It grows best in tropical and warm temperate climates, in partial shade and moist, well-drained soils.