Coca plant grown only in South America. True?

[xash]

This time.com article states:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1821697,00.html
"
As for the popularity of cocaine, the reason may simply be the close proximity of South America, the world’s only coca plant producer.
"
(bolding mine)

Is this true? What makes South America the only place conducive to the growing of this plant?

Thanks.

[Squink]

Erythroxylon coca appears to be one of those tropical plants which grow in a limited climatic range:

The coca plants are shrubs or small trees, some of the species reaching the height of fifteen or twenty feet. It is conjectured that the original habitat was in the Peruvian mountains, from 7° South to 10° North, but either spontaneously or through cultivation the coca shrubs have spread until they are found in the whole Eastern curve of the Andes, from the Straits of Magellan to the borders of the Caribbean Sea, growing on the moist sides of the mountains at the elevation of 1500 to 6000 feet, the climatic requisites being moisture and equable temperature, with a mean of about 17.7° C. (64° F.)

Frost is a limiting factor.

However (fist link), it is grown in places outside South America:

Coca is cultivated in the British East and West Indies, and in Java, and the product is said to appear, in the London markets, under the names of Truxillo coca and Java coca.

[xash]

Thanks. That answers my question.

On a side note, your second link got me spending hours reading through the cocaine.org site, and then the hedweb.com site. Learnt some fascinating stuff about the drug war, Colombian cartels, FARC, and “The Hedonistic Imperative”.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

How long until somebody in Colombia gets smart, & genengineers a more temperature-tolerant breed?

[An_Gadai]

Why would someone in Colombia want to do that?

[1010011010]

@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

How long until somebody in Colombia gets smart, & genengineers a more temperature-tolerant breed?

Reminded me of the super-plant that the drugwar built.