Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree Anacardium occidentale, in the family Anacardiaceae. It is the source of the cashew nut (often simply called a 'cashew') and the cashew apple. The tree can grow as tall as .
The species is native to South America. The dwarf cultivars, growing up to , are the most profitable, maturing sooner and producing greater yields. In 2023, 3.9 million tons of cashew nuts were harvested globally, led by the Ivory Coast and India.
The nut shell and raw seed are toxic but the nut is edible once shelled and roasted or steamed. Treated cashews are eaten on their own as a snack, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. The cashew apple, an accessory fruit, is a light reddish to yellow fruit, the pulp and juice of which can be processed into a sweet, astringent fruit drink or fermented and distilled into liquor. Additionally, derivatives from the shell are used in products such as varnishes, lubricant, and paints.
Description
The cashew tree is large and evergreen, growing to tall, with a short, often irregularly shaped trunk. The leaves are spirally arranged, leathery textured, elliptic to obovate, long and broad, with smooth margins. The flowers are produced in a panicle or corymb up to long; each flower is small, pale green at first, then turning reddish, with five slender, acute petals long. The largest cashew tree in the world covers an area around and is located in Parnamirim, Brazil.
The fruit of the cashew tree is an accessory fruit (sometimes called a pseudocarp or false fruit). What appears to be the fruit is an oval or pear-shaped structure, a hypocarpium, that develops from the pedicel and the receptacle of the cashew flower. The seed is surrounded by a double-shell that contains an allergenic phenolic resin, to "the top of the fruit stem" or to the seed. The word anacardium was earlier used to refer to Semecarpus anacardium (the marking nut tree) before Carl Linnaeus transferred it to the cashew; both plants are in the same family. The epithet occidentale derives from the Western (or Occidental) world.
Distribution and habitat
The species is native to tropical South America and later was distributed around the world in the 1500s by Portuguese explorers. The Portuguese took it to Goa, formerly Estado da Índia Portuguesa in India, between 1560 and 1565. From there, it spread throughout Southeast Asia and eventually Africa.
Cultivation
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