Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Qjurious
Type:
Info
Chapter:
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Caryocar nuciferum
English: Butter-nut of Guiana; Pekea-nut; Souari-nut; Sawarri-nut.
Region: northern Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Panama, Venezuela.
Habitat: humid forests.
Culture: perhaps the finest of all the fruits called nuts.
Use: fruit, raw or roasted for food and nondrying edible oil for healing balm; wood is durable for boat-building.
Botany
Colourful tree; up to 35 m.
Inflorescence: small clusters.
Flowers: hermaphroditic.
Fruit: large coconut-sized, weighs about 3 kg; round or pear-shaped; greyish-brown; skin leathery, about 1 mm thick; covered in rust-coloured lenticels; kernel is large, soft, similar to but sweeter than almond; pulp is oily and sticky, holding 1-4 hard, woody, warty stones, with tasty, reniform endocarp.