Anacardium occidentale – Native Plant Search

Native Range

A native plant refers to a species of plant that has naturally evolved and grown in a particular geographic area without any human intervention or introduction. These plants have adapted to the local climate, soil, and ecological conditions over an extended period of time, often thousands of years. Because of this co-evolution with their specific environment, native plants have developed characteristics that make them well-suited to the local ecosystem and provide essential resources for local wildlife.

Native plants play a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance of an area. They provide food and habitat for native wildlife, support pollinators like bees and butterflies, and contribute to the overall health of the ecosystem. Additionally, native plants often require fewer resources like water and fertilizers compared to non-native or exotic plants that may not be well-suited to the local environment.

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Native Continent

Southern America

French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia,

Natural Habitat

Edible Uses

Edible portion: Nut, Leaves, Fruit pulp, Flavouring, Vegetable, Seeds, Oil. Fruit - raw or cooked. Juicy and refreshing, though they are a bit acidic and often have an astringency that can leave your mouth feeling furry. They are also somewhat fibrous. They can also be dried or sliced with other fruits. The fruit can also be lightly cooked to get rid of their astringency. A refreshing juice can be extracted from the fruit. Red fruits are considered to be superior to yellow fruits. The apple is used to make spirits. The fruit is about 3cm long. Seed - must be cooked before being removed from its shell. Slightly sweet with a pleasant, bland flavour. Eaten on their own, salted and used in a wide range of confections. They can also be used as the basis of savoury protein-rich meat-alternative dishes. Caution should be employed when harvesting the seed - see notes above on toxicity. An edible oil is obtained from the seed but, due to the high value of the seed, the oil is not usually extracted. Young leaves and shoots - raw in salads or cooked. Eaten in S.E. Asia, but too astringent for most tastes. They are picked during the rainy season and eaten fresh with hot and spicy dishes. One of our users, Carol, from the tropics of northern Australia, kindly forwarded the following information. Safely processing cashew nuts at home. 1. It is best to fill a lidded oven-safe pot with sand and bury the unopened nuts completely in the sand. Use an old pot as after processing the pot will not be suitable to use for any other purpose due to traces of the caustic latex that may remain behind. I have a lidded casserole dish dedicated solely for this purpose. 2. Preheat the oven to around 250 deg C and roast the nuts in their shell for 10 minutes. Make sure to have windows open and the kitchen well ventilated as the heat causes the shell to crack and the caustic latex to ooze out. While the sand will absorb the oil, it may also emit a caustic choking smoke, avoid inhaling this! Take extreme care opening the oven door. I would recommend taking the lidded pot outdoors before removing the lid. Better still, if you have an outdoor stove, use that from the start. 3. Wear disposable gloves when you open the pot and carefully remove the nuts from the sand as they may have some oil residue. Place the whole roasted nuts in a dish of water and detergent and thoroughly wash them. 4. It should now be safe to open the shell and remove the kernel. Finally, remove the thin brown papery cover from the kernel. 5. Note that if any of the latex has stuck to the roasted kernel during processing then that nut(kernel) is not edible and must be thrown out. 6. If like me you are a hobby gardener or a subsistence farmer, and not growing commercial quantities, the unopened nuts can be stored for a couple of years until enough nuts have been stored to warrant processing. My tree produced one cashew apple and nut in its first year and I certainly was not going to go through that process for one solitary nut!