Anacardium occidentale L.

 
  • Family : ANACARDIACEAE
    (MANGO FAMILY or CASHEW FAMILY or SUMAC FAMILY)
  • Family (as per The Plant List) : Anacardiaceae
  • Species : Anacardium occidentale
  • Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Anacardium occidentale L.
  • Common name : Cashew-nut Tree
  • Vernacular name : Kaju, Kaju phed (Hin.); Geru (Kan.); Munthiri (Tam.); Jidimamidi, Munth-mamidi, Mokka-mamidi (Tel.); Kaju, Lanka amba, Bajan, Lanka badam (Ori.); Kajoo (San.)
  • Key identification features : Small tree mostly in cultivation. Leaves are simple, obovate, obtuse with cuneate base and glaucous. Flowers are in panicles, 1.5 to 2 cm. long with greenish to pink coloured petals. The fruit is pear-shaped, crimson-red or bright yellow, juicy and edible. Nut is hard-shelled, containing a single large seed.
  • Habit : Tree
  • Flower, Fruit : December-May
  • Native : Tropical America
  • Comments : Cultivated for its edible fruits. Sometimes as an escape.
  • Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
  • World Distribution : Tropics of the World
  • Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2002 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 1; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1 ; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District ; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 -Flora of Srikakulam District ; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipal, Orissa; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983.
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Arun Singh R., Deepak Kumar, Raja K Swamy and Navendu Page (2016). Digital Flora of Eastern Ghats. http://easternghats.ces.iisc.ernet.in/plants.php?name=Anacardium occidentale. Downloaded on 21 April 2025.

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Digital Flora of Eastern Ghats by Herbarium JCB is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://easternghats.ces.iisc.ernet.in.