Anacardium
Content
Description
Trees or shrubs.
Leaves spiral or alternate, simple, petioled.
Inflorescences terminal, sometimes also in the upper leaf axils, paniculate or sometimes corymbose.
Flowers unisexual (♂) or bisexual (plants polygamous).
Petals 5, imbricate, puberulous on both surfaces.
Stamens 7-10, unequal, 1 (rarely 2) much stouter and longer, the rest reduced, smaller, all fertile, sometimes some of them imperfect or sterile;
Ovary slightly obovoid, glabrous, 1-celled and 1-ovuled, abortive and rudimentary in ♂;
Seed with testa free from endocarp;
Distribution
tropical America present, tropics cultivated
About 8 spp. in tropical America; one, A. occidentale L., widely cultivated in the tropics.