Caryocar nuciferum

Caryocar nuciferum, the butter-nut of Guiana, is a fruit tree native to Central and South America.

Caryocar nuciferum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Caryocaraceae
Genus:	Caryocar
Species:	C. nuciferum
Binomial name
Caryocar nuciferum L.
Synonyms
Caryocar tomentosum Willd. Caryocar tuberculosum (Aubl.) Baill. Pekea tuberculosa Aubl.

Description

Caryocar nuciferum grows up to 35 metres (115 ft) in humid forests. Flowers are hermaphroditic and in small clusters. The large coconut-sized fruit, weighs about 3 kilograms (6.6 lb), is round or pear-shaped some 10–15 centimetres (4–6 in) in diameter, and greyish-brown in colour. The outer skin is leathery, about 1 millimetre (1⁄16 in) thick, and covered in rust-coloured lenticels.

The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911) calls the fruit "perhaps the finest of all [those] called nuts. The kernel is large, soft, and even sweeter than the almond, which it somewhat resembles in taste."

Pulp of the mesocarp is oily and sticky, holding 1–4 hard, woody, warty stones, with tasty, reniform endocarp.

Taxonomy

Caryocar nuciferum is illustrated and discussed in detail in Curtis's Botanical Magazine volume 54 (1827), and figured on plates 2727 and 2728 using material sent from the island of Saint Vincent by Lansdown Guilding.

It is also known as pekea-nut, or – like all other species of Caryocar with edible nuts – "souari-nut" or "sawarri-nut".

Distr

The species is native to Costa Rica, Panama, northern Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, and Venezuela.

Uses

The endocarp is eaten raw or roasted, and produces a nondrying edible oil. The wood is durable and used for boat building. The correctly expressed oil of its nuts produces an effective healing balm.

External links

• CIRAD-FLHOR/IPGRI Project for Neotropical Fruits: Caryocar nuciferum