In the present work, cacauhy's (Theobroma speciosum) floral biology was studied. Flower buds split their sepals at 14h reaching its maximum at 22h, but all flowers were fully opened at 6:00 h of the following morning. Stigmatic branches showed exudates, reaching maximum between 6:00 h and 10:00 h at the same day. Ligules and petal hoods were the floral parts with highest intensity of odour. Flowers were receptive along all the morning and noon of the anthesis day. Approximately 65% of the flowers were naturally pollinated, but only 0.85% of them set a fruit. Abscission occurred on its higher frequency at 6:00 h of the second day after anthesis. Controlled pollinations showed that cacauhy was self-incompatible species.
self-incompatibility; flower behavior; hybridization; cocoa
