What Tiny Flies Pollinate Chocolate Trees?

What Crafty Clover says in this video

Intro

Hi there, curious minds! I'm Crafty Clover! Let's discover something amazing. What tiny flies pollinate chocolate trees?

The Big Idea

Chocolate trees are pollinated by tiny flies called midges, not by bees! Without these little insects, there would be far fewer cocoa beans. So chocolate depends on the insects of the forest. Cacao trees grow wild in the Amazon rainforest and on farms in many warm places.

Small Flowers

Step one: small flowers. Cacao flowers are small and grow right on the trunk and thick branches. Their shape is hard for big insects like bees to enter, but just right for a tiny fly.

Midge Visitors

Step two: midge visitors. Tiny flies called midges, only a few millimeters long, crawl into the flowers. They carry pollen from flower to flower. Even so, only a small share of flowers ever turn into pods.

Leaf Litter

Step three: leaf litter. Midges lay eggs in damp, rotting leaves on the forest floor. So a healthy, leafy floor helps make the midges that make the cocoa beans.

A Closer Look

Let's take a closer look at the cacao tree! The flowers grow right on the trunk. A midge crawls in to pollinate. The babies grow in damp leaf litter below. Later the tree makes pods with cocoa beans.

Quick Facts

Quick facts! Cocoa beans are the seeds inside cacao pods. Midges are only a few millimeters long. Leafy forest floors help midges thrive. Never taste wild pods. Chocolate is made in factories from carefully treated beans.

Think Like a Scientist

Now, think like a scientist! Draw a cacao flower on a trunk. Put a tiny midge on the flower. Draw leaf litter on the ground below. Label where the midge's babies grow.

Outro

Tiny flies help make chocolate. Science is amazing! Crafty Clover can be found on Amazon Books, Google Bookstore, and Apple Books. Available for purchase or download! Bye for now!