·     This term occurs quite frequently in the PSS of vases, in the phrase: yuk’ib ta (yutal) ixiim te’el kakao = “(the) drinking vessel for (fruity) maize-tree-ish / maize-tree-type cacao”.

·     Zender-CaCiAMF.t0:10:10-10:45: The text on these vessels of course typically calls out the origin of chocolate by saying things like yuk'ib ta ixiim te'el kakaw; literally "his cup for chocolate from the maize tree", with the vowel-l suffix that indicates source or origin. Ta ixiim te'el kakaw - this could also be translated as "this cup for 'maize tree-ish' kakaw", with the sense that it emerges from the fabulous, magical tree that grows from the dead body of the Maize God in the Underworld, and [that] gives us all of the first fruits.

·     There’s some uncertainty as to what ixiim te’ actually is. Is it actually the maize plant itself, “viewed as a tree”, or is it different plant, a type of tree, unrelated to maize, with ixiim just as qualifier (in the same way as a “whale shark” is a type of shark, with “whale” just as a qualifier for what sort of shark, unrelated to whales).

·     In Callaway-ART.t2:17:42 Nicholas Hellmuth explains how he and his team found the actual plant growing in the wild: We went out into the rainforest, and we found ixiim te'. It took years and years and years. And we found ixiim te' blooming. And we found it within a couple of metres of two lodges we stayed in, on two different rivers. Unless it's blooming, you never see it. But once it blooms – and if you know what it is – then there are millions of them. And we photographed gazillions of them. So, it is a plant - it is a flavouring - and it grows all over the Arroyo Petex Batun - or actually the tributaries, and it grows all over the tributaries of the Rio San Pedro. It's everywhere - it's very common! [Sim: arroyo = “a watercourse (such as a creek) in an arid region”, “a water-carved gully or channel”. So, indeed, for Hellmuth, ixiim te’ is a very different plant from maize.]