Caryocar nuciferum
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Caryocar nuciferum, the butter-nut of Guiana, is a fruit tree native to Central and South America.
Description
Caryocar nuciferum grows up to Script error: No such module "convert". in humid forests. Flowers are hermaphroditic and in small clusters. The large coconut-sized fruit, weighs about Script error: No such module "convert"., is round or pear-shaped some Script error: No such module "convert". in diameter, and greyish-brown in colour. The outer skin is leathery, about Script error: No such module "convert". 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."[1]
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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The wood is durable and used for boat building. The correctly expressed oil of its nuts produces an effective healing balm.
References
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