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cacahuaxochitl.

Headword: 
cacahuaxochitl.
Principal English Translation: 

commonly called the "cacao" flower (botanical name: Quararibea funebris), but this is not botanically related to the cacao tree, it is an herb used in making the beverage called tejate; it also has medicinal value (see attestations)

Orthographic Variants: 
cacahoaxochitl
Attestations from sources in English: 

See an image that represents cacahuaxochitl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

"cacao" flower (late sixteenth century, Tetzcoco?)
Ballads of the Lords of New Spain: The Codex Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España, transcribed and translated by John Bierhorst (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009), 33.

"The cacahoaxóchitl or cacaoatl flower is an herb that has heart-shaped leaves, stems a span long, purple flowers and thick, fibrous roots. The root is sweet, with a trace of bitterness, enough to make it hot. Half an ounce powdered and taken, cures dysentery. (It grows in Yancuitlan, in Upper Mixteca.)"
The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 146.

The Florentine Codex, Book 11, folio 188v, has a description and image of the cacahuaxochitl.
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 188v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/188v/images/4c681520-... . Accessed 26 November 2025.

themes: 
Flowers
Plants, Trees, Flora