Semecarpus anacardium
Videos
Semecarpus anacardium, commonly known as the marking nut tree, Malacca bean tree, marany nut, oriental cashew, dhobi nut tree and varnish tree, is a native of India, found in the outer Himalayas to th
Semecarpus anacardium
Dried fruits
Accessory fruit
Videos
An accessory fruit is a fruit that contains tissue derived from plant parts other than the ovary. In other words, the flesh of the fruit develops not from the floral ovary, but from some adjacent tiss
Semecarpus anacardium
…used by Linnaeus to refer to the cashew. It is a deciduous tree. Like the closely related cashew, the fruit is composed of two parts, a reddish-orange accessory fruit and a black drupe that grows at the end. The nut is about 25 millimetres (1 in) long, ovoid and smooth lustrous black. The accessory fruit is edible…
A selection of accessory fruits (from left to right: pear, fig, and strawberry)
Apple section, showing seeds plus papery expression of the ovary, surrounded by tissue formed from ripening of the hypanthium.
On this strawberry, the many pips located on the surface have grown into leafy structures rather than seeds in a phenomenon known as phyllody. The pips of the strawberry are its true fruit.
The cashew 'apple' and its attached drupe, which contains the edible seed.