PlantsMap

EN PL

8 plants worth knowing

Côte d’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire divides into a humid, forested south and a savanna north, with the V-shaped Baoulé savanna driving a wedge between them. In the south-west survives one of the largest remnants of primary rainforest in West Africa – Taï National Park – although most of the former forests have been replaced by cacao and coffee plantations.

Hover over a plant to see on the map where it grows.

where it grows

  1. Cacao 1

    crop

    Cacao

    Theobroma cacao

    Nearly 40% of the world’s cocoa comes from Côte d’Ivoire – by far the largest cocoa producer on Earth.
  2. Kapok tree 2

    tree

    Kapok tree

    Ceiba pentandra

    The fromager – a forest giant with wall-like roots that gave its name to the whole Fromager region, centred on Gagnoa.
  3. Robusta coffee 3

    crop

    Robusta coffee

    Coffea canephora

    In the 1970s Côte d’Ivoire was the world’s third-largest coffee producer – robusta was the second pillar of the “Ivorian miracle”.
  4. Makoré 4

    tree

    Makoré

    Tieghemella heckelii

    A giant of the Taï forest whose seeds are spread by forest elephants – a tree with fine, pinkish-brown timber.
  5. African palmyra palm 5

    palm

    African palmyra palm

    Borassus aethiopum

    The rônier – a slender palm of the Baoulé savanna whose sap becomes bangui palm wine and whose wood makes termite-proof beams.
  6. Cashew 6

    tree

    Cashew

    Anacardium occidentale

    Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of raw cashew nuts, grown on the savannas of the north.
  7. Cassava 7

    crop

    Cassava

    Manihot esculenta

    Fermented cassava becomes attiéké – a couscous-like dish without which Ivorian cuisine is hard to imagine.
  8. Rubber tree 8

    tree

    Rubber tree

    Hevea brasiliensis

    Vast rubber plantations have made Côte d’Ivoire Africa’s largest producer of natural rubber.