How cashews grow or unique fruits - nuts on an apple

How does cashew grow? Recently returned with my husband from a vacation in Thailand. So there, in a local restaurant, we were served a very unusual fruit snack. Outwardly, this "miracle" looked like an apple, only orange and watery. The waiter said it was cashew fruit. I never would have thought, because I was sure that cashews are nuts that are sold in our local supermarket.

Delicious comma-bent nuts are one of our favorite treats. Today they are not a scarce product and are always on store shelves. Most of us are used to thinking that cashews are nuts, like peanuts. However, in reality this is not the case. And they grow, and they look different, and even bear fruit not with nuts, but with apples. Are you wondering how cashews grow? Then let's get to know this culture better.

The scientific name for cashews sounds like "western anacardium".

Read on:how pistachios grow on trees

Description of the plant: what a cashew looks like

Cashews are fruits of an evergreen tree of the sumac family. By its nature, its family ties are closer to pistachios and mangoes than to peanuts... Outwardly, the cashew tree is similar to our apple tree: with the same spreading, wide and profusely branching crown. However, the trunk itself is often short and begins to quickly form many lateral branches in a chaotic manner. In natural conditions, cashews really look like a giant and can grow up to 30 m in height. In cultural cultivation, the height of the tree is quite compact and does not exceed 12 m due to annual and regular pruning.

The branches of the tree are densely covered with very large leaves. Their length reaches 20 cm and 15 cm wide. They have nothing to do with apple foliage, but personally, they remind me more of the leaves of one houseplant called white-necked spurge. Of course, not in size, but in its ovoid shape and color, when veins clearly appear on a green background.

The tree blooms in early summer, forming pretty panicles of greenish-pink flowers. They are small, with 5 sharp petals. At the end of flowering, in place of the inflorescences, the fruits begin to ripen, and after a couple of months they are ready to be removed or fall off themselves.

Cashews are developing quite actively and quickly and will give the first harvest in 3 years. By the way, his flowers are heterosexual, as a result of which they self-pollinate.

How cashews grow: features of fruiting

But what is most surprising about cashews is the fruit. There are two of them at once:

1. Apple. It is called "I show" and in fact it is not a separate fruit, but a stalk. It grows and swells over time, taking the shape of an apple or pear. The color can be yellow-orange or pink-red, and inside is a juicy sourish pulp. It does not look like our apples, as it is watery and slightly fibrous, moreover, it is absolutely seedless. These cashews can only be tasted in their homeland - they are not stored after being removed.
2. Nutlet. Attaches to the tip of the apple-stalk and is covered with a double shell. In this case, the first, external, is green in color and contains a caustic resin. The second, inner one, in the form of a shell, covers the nut itself.

You cannot harvest cashews with your bare hands - the resin causes burns on the skin. Only after heat treatment are the nuts peeled by hand. It is interesting that the proportions of real and pseudo-fruit are not uniform and the harvest is relatively poor.Although the "apples" themselves are quite large, each has only one small nut hanging on it.

Interesting cashew nuts - video