Listing description
The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa)
is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and the name of the tree's commercially
harvested edible seeds.
Detailed description
Order
The Brazil nut family is in the order Ericales, as are other well-known plants such
as blueberries, cranberries, sapote, gutta-percha, tea,
gooseberries, phlox and persimmons.
Brazil nut tree
The Brazil nut tree is the only species in the monotypic genus Bertholletia.
It is native to the Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil,
eastern Colombia,
eastern Peru, and
eastern Bolivia. It
occurs as scattered trees in large forests on the banks of the Amazon
River, Rio Negro, Tapajós, and the Orinoco. The
genus is named after the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet.
The Brazil nut is a large tree, reaching 50 m (160 ft)
tall and with a trunk 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft) in diameter, making it
among the largest of trees in the Amazon
rainforests. It may live for 500 years or more, and according to some
authorities often reaches an age of 1,000 years.[1] The stem is straight and commonly without
branches for well over half the tree's height, with a large emergent crown of
long branches above the surrounding canopy of other trees.
The bark is grayish and smooth. The leaves are dry-season deciduous,
alternate, simple, entire or crenate, oblong, 20–35 cm (7.9–13.8 in)
long and 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) broad. The flowers are small,
greenish-white, in panicles 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) long; each
flower has a two-parted, deciduous calyx, six
unequal cream-colored petals, and numerous stamens united into a broad, hood-shaped mass.
Hazards[edit]
In Brazil, it is illegal to cut down a Brazil nut tree. As a
result, they can be found outside production areas, in the backyards of homes
and near roads and streets. The fruit containing nuts are very heavy and rigid,
and they pose a serious threat to vehicles and people passing under the tree.
At least one person has died after being hit on the head by a falling fruit.[2] As the Brazil nut is a botanical seed, and
unlike botanical nuts, the density of the fruit makes them sink in fresh water,
which can cause clogging of waterways in riparian areas.
Reproduction
Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine
forests, as disturbed forests lack the large-bodied bees of the genera Bombus, Centris, Epicharis, Eulaema, and Xylocopa which
are the only ones capable of pollinating the tree's flowers, with different bee
genera being the primary pollinators in different areas, and different times of
year. Brazil nuts have been
harvested from plantations, but production is low and is currently not
economically viable.
The fruit takes 14 months to mature after pollination of the
flowers. The fruit itself is a large capsule 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) in
diameter, resembling a coconut endocarp in size and weighing up to 2 kg
(4.4 lb). It has a hard, woody shell 8–12 mm (0.31–0.47 in)
thick, which contains eight to 24 triangular seeds 4–5 cm
(1.6–2.0 in) long (the "Brazil nuts") packed like the segments
of an orange.
The capsule contains a small hole at one end, which enables
large rodents like the agouti to gnaw it open. They then eat some of the
seeds inside while burying others for later use; some of these are able to
germinate into new Brazil nut trees. Most of the seeds are "planted"
by the agoutis in shady places, and the young saplings may have to wait years,
in a state of dormancy, for a tree to fall and sunlight to reach it, when it
starts growing again. Capuchin
monkeys have
been reported to open Brazil nuts using a stone as an anvil.
Nomenclature
Despite their name, the most significant exporter of Brazil nuts
is not Brazil but Bolivia, where they are called nuez de Brasil. In Brazil,
these nuts are called castanhas-do-pará (literally "chestnuts from Pará"), but Acreans call
them castanhas-do-acre instead. Indigenous names include juvia in the Orinoco area.
Though it is commonly called the Brazil nut, in botanical terms it is
the seed from the fruit of this tree. To a
botanist, a nut is a hard-shelled indehiscent fruit. (An
example of a botanical nut would be an acorn or a hazelnut.)
In the United States, Brazil nuts were once known by the epithet
"nigger toes,"[9] though the term fell out of favor as public
use of the racial slur became increasingly unacceptable by the 1960s. They can
be seen being sold in a market under this name in a scene from the 1922 Stan
Laurel film The Pest.
Nut production
Around 20,000 tons of Brazil nuts are harvested each year, of
which Bolivia accounts for about 50%, Brazil 40%, and Peru 10% (2000
estimates).[10] In 1980, annual production was around
40,000 tons per year from Brazil alone, and in 1970, Brazil harvested a
reported 104,487 tons of nuts.[6]
Effects of harvesting
Brazil nuts for international trade can come from wild
collection rather than from plantations. This has been advanced as a model for
generating income from a tropical
forest without
destroying it. The nuts are gathered by migrant workers known as castanheiros.
Analysis of tree ages in areas that are harvested show that
moderate and intense gathering takes so many seeds that not enough are left to
replace older trees as they die. Sites with light gathering activities had many
young trees, while sites with intense gathering practices had hardly any young
trees.
Statistical tests were done to determine what environmental
factors could be contributing to the lack of younger trees. The most consistent
effect was found to be the level of gathering activity at a particular site. A computer model predicting
the size of trees where people picked all the nuts matched the tree size data
gathered from physical sites that had heavy harvesting.
PRICE
$67.53/KG
For more information:
mobile: +2348039721941
contact person: emeaba uche
website: www.franchiseminerals.com
e-mail: emeabau@yahoo.com
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