It is hardy tropical plant and does not exact a very specific climate. The nuts vary in size, shape, weight (3-20g) and shelling % (15 –30%). The cashew fruit is a kidney shaped drupaceous nut, greenish grey in colour. It is rich source of vitamin c and sugar. The apple varies in size, colour, juice content and taste. The fleshy peduncle, the ‘cashew apple’, is juicy and sweet when ripe. Pollination is carried out by flies, bees and ants as well as by wind. On the same tree, the perfect flowers are larger in size than the staminate. flowers are either bisexual or staminate but both occur intermixed in the same inflorescence. The inflorescence is an indeterminate panicle of polygamomonoecious type i.e. The leaves are alternative, simple, glabrous, obovate, round and pinnately veined. The cashew tree is a low spreading, evergreen tree with a very prominent tap root. Kerala followed by Tamilnadu occupy more area under cashew nut. Cashew growing area is centered only on the coastal area in India. The export earning from cashew constitutes about 2 percent of the total foreign earning from agricultural produces. Though India produces only 40 percent of the world production of cashew nuts, it meets 90 percent of the world export of cashew kernels. Cashew is native of south Eastern Brazil, from where it was introduced to Malabar Coast of India in the sixteenth century to cover baren hills and for soil conservation.
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