Cashew Nut, Cashew
Anacardium occidentale · Anacardiaceae · 아나카르디움 옥시덴탈레
How to spot it
Told apart by its unusual fruit structure, a kidney-shaped nut hanging from the end of a swollen flower stalk (cashew apple).
Look
- Leaves
- Alternate simple, obovate leaves, hairless, with pinnate veins. They reach 20 cm long and 15 cm wide, with rounded or notched tips, smooth margins and short leaf stalks.
- Flowers
- Male and female flowers, green and red, open in terminal panicles 10 to 20 cm long and are pollinated by bees, flies and ants.
- Fruit
- Made of two parts: the cashew nut, which is the true fruit, and the cashew apple, the swollen red or yellow flower stalk. The seed can be eaten after thorough roasting.
- Bark
- A clear gum oozes from wounds on the trunk.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to tropical America.
Sources
- 국립수목원 국가표준식물목록(KPNI 웹 조회)
- NParks Flora&Fauna Web — Anacardium occidentale
- PMC 학술논문 — Cashew nut shell liquid poisoning
- J. Morton, Fruits of Warm Climates(1987) — Purdue University NewCROP
- Duke, Handbook of Energy Crops: Anacardium occidentale (Purdue Univ. NewCROP)
- ICRAF(World Agroforestry) Agroforestree Database 4.0 — Anacardium occidentale(Orwa et al. 2009)