Cashew

Spreading evergreen perennial tree to 12 m tall; leaves simple, alternate, obovate, glabrous, penninerved, to 20 cm long, 15 cm wide, apically rounded or notched, entire, short petiolate; flowers numerous in terminal panicles, 10–20 cm long, male or female, green and reddish, radially symmetrical nearly; sepals 5; petals 5; stamens 10; ovary one-locular, one-ovulate, style simple; fruit a reniform achene, about 3 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, attached to the distal end of an enlarged pedicel and hypocarp, called the cashew-apple; this shiny, red or yellowish, pear-shaped, soft, juicy, 10–20 cm long, 4–8 cm broad; fruit reniform, edible, with two large white cotyledons and a small embryo, surrounded by a hard pericarp which is cellular and oily, oil is poisonous causing allergenic reactions in some humans. Fl. variable.