Coca belongs to the diverse genus Erythroxylum, which comprises over 270 different species, many native to the American tropics. Among these, two species of cultivated cocas are found in mostly ...

South American coca plants have been essential to Andean and Amazonian communities for at least 8,000 years. It is within these communities that they are thought to have evolved from wild to ...

image: coca leaves on a plant. view more . Credit: Natalia Przelomska/ Molecular Biology and Evolution. A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press ...