Hardwood · Giant

Espavel

Anacardium excelsum (Bertero & Balb. ex Kunth) Skeels

Central America to Venezuela and Ecuador

Fun factFruit-eating bats disperse the espavel by eating the fleshy stalk and dropping the toxic nut (UCR; ACG).

A large canopy tree of lowland river forests, with a straight trunk and a dense, rounded crown. It often dominates floodplains and gallery forests along streams, and in the Guanacaste Conservation Area it grows in transition zones and along stream banks. It is a wild relative of the cashew: the kidney-shaped nut sits on a fleshy, edible stalk.

Sourced · see Record tab

Hardwood Giant Native from Cuba and Central America south to Venezuela

Wildacross the estate

FamilyAnacardiaceae

Spanish nameEspavel

Also known asWild cashew, Espavé, Espavel amarillo, Caracolí, Mijao

Native toNative from Cuba and Central America south to Venezuela and Ecuador, on both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes.

Grows wild across the estate.