Species
+

Anacardium occidentale L.

Balubad, Cachou Nut, Cachou Nut Tree, Caoci

Climate known 21 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree Anacardium occidentale, in the family Anacardiaceae. It is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple. The tree can grow as tall as 14 meters.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cashew”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Anacardium

Anacardium, the cashews, are a genus of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. The best known species is Anacardium occidentale, which is commercially cultivated for its cashew nuts and cashew apples.

Text from Wikipedia, “Anacardium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Anacardiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Trinidad-Tobago, Guyana, Surinam +9
Wild records
898 in range· 738 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Oct, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1453mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 200 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.0 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1453 mm a year, wettest January at 200 mm, driest August at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acajuba occidentalis (L.) Gaertn.; Anacardium amilcarianum Machado; Anacardium curatellaefolium A.St.-Hil; Anacardium kuhlmannianum Machado; Anacardium microcarpum Ducke and 8 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.0 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1042 mm of 1453 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1453 mm a year, wettest January at 200 mm, driest August at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1453 mm a year at the habitat, 1042 mm of it November to April. Wettest month January at 200 mm, driest August at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 967 mm to 2529 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 16.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 16.8 °C, the absolute minimum 11.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 14.6 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jun to 30 °C in Oct; mean night from 20 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1453 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 806 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°37.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–38RH 61–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 806 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 26–3028 / 25–3127 / 24–3127 / 24–3129 / 25–3330 / 25–3430 / 26–3329 / 27–3229 / 26–32
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 18–2522 / 16–2421 / 15–2420 / 15–2421 / 16–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2522 / 19–2522 / 19–25
Rain mm200 / 54–319173 / 62–302200 / 94–333151 / 76–347101 / 24–30959 / 5–28049 / 2–23838 / 4–17458 / 9–140106 / 11–188145 / 16–246173 / 36–311
DLI35 / 30–4136 / 30–4034 / 29–3832 / 28–3429 / 24–3328 / 23–3330 / 24–3534 / 28–3937 / 31–4238 / 32–4336 / 31–4235 / 30–40
RH %64 / 60–6964 / 60–6964 / 61–6965 / 59–7064 / 54–7063 / 50–7062 / 48–6961 / 46–6761 / 48–6761 / 53–6762 / 57–6864 / 59–69

Each figure is the median across the 806 grid cells holding the 874 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1980:2500 (-9.025, -54.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 806 distinct grid cells holding the 874 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1980:2500 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -9.00_-55.000, lapse-corrected +28 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 527 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTrinidad-Tobago, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North· introduced: Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Comoros, Seychelles, China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Sulawesi, Wallis-Futuna Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-11.032, -37.475 · in the densest population, 257 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 898 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 738 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 890 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 24 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 898 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Anacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentaleAnacardium occidentale

Photographs: Lucas Kaminski, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Anacardium occidentale, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

‘Green’ synthesis of metals and their oxide nanoparticles: applications for environmental remediation
Jagpreet Singh, Tanushree Dutta, Ki‐Hyun Kim, Mohit Rawat (2018) · Journal of Nanobiotechnology
Regulation of Ascorbate-Glutathione Pathway in Mitigating Oxidative Damage in Plants under Abiotic Stress
Mirza Hasanuzzaman, M. H. M. Borhannuddin Bhuyan, Taufika Islam Anee, Khursheda Parvin (2019) · Antioxidants
Green Synthesis of Metallic Nanoparticles via Biological Entities
Monaliben Shah, Derek Fawcett, Shashi B. Sharma, Suraj K. Tripathy (2015) · Materials
A Systematic Screening of Total Antioxidants in Dietary Plants
Bente Halvorsen, Kari Holte, Mari C. W. Myhrstad, Ingrid Barikmo (2002) · Journal of Nutrition
Plant Defense against Insect Herbivores
Joel Fürstenberg-Hägg, Mika Zagrobelny, Søren Bak (2013) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using plant extracts and their antimicrobial activities: a review of recent literature
Chhangte Vanlalveni, Samuel Lallianrawna, Ayushi Biswas, Manickam Selvaraj (2021) · RSC Advances
α-Amylase inhibitory activity of some Malaysian plants used to treat diabetes; with particular reference to Phyllanthus amarus
Hasenah Ali, Peter J. Houghton, Amala Soumyanath (2006) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Antioxidant capacities and total phenolic contents of 62 fruits
Fu Li, Botao Xu, Xiang‐Rong Xu, Ren‐You Gan (2011) · Food Chemistry
Antidiabetic Potential of Medicinal Plants and Their Active Components
Bahare Salehi, Athar Ata, N. V. Anil Kumar, Farukh Sharopov (2019) · Biomolecules
Nanopriming technology for enhancing germination and starch metabolism of aged rice seeds using phytosynthesized silver nanoparticles
Wuttipong Mahakham, Ajit K. Sarmah, Santi Maensiri, Piyada Theerakulpisut (2017) · Scientific Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 231 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.