861
Anacardium
occidentale L.
Synonym
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:
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Acajuba occidentalis
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Family
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Anacardiaceae
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Local name
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English -Cashew-nut tree,
Malayalam -Kasumavu
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Flowering and fruiting
period
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November-April
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Distribution
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Native of South America; now widely cultivated in Asia and Africa
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Distribution in Kerala
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All Districts
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Habitat
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Cultivated
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Endemic/Exotic
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Exotic
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Uses
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Ayurvedic medicine recommends the fruit for
anthelmintic, aphrodisiac, ascites, dysentery, fever, inappetence,
leucoderma, piles, tumors, and obstinate ulcers Rich in Vitamin B,C,E
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Key botanical
characters :
Gregarious evergreen trees, to 15 m high, bark pale grey to brown,
smooth with vertical striations; blaze dull pink; exudation sticky, red;
branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, somewhat crowded on twig
apices, obovate; apex obtuse, round or retuse, base acute or cuneate, round,
margin entire, glabrous, shiny above, coriaceous; Flowers polygamous, yellow,
streaked with pink, in terminal prominently bracteate panicles. Calyx
5-partite, lanceolate, imbricate, deciduous, with some pubescence on outside.
Petals 5, linear-lanceolate, ligulate, recurved, imbricate; disc filling the
base of the calyx, erect. Fruit a reniform nut, grey seed reniform,
ascending.
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