Anacardium L.

Shrubs or trees. Leaves simple, alternate, entire, petiolate. Panicles terminal. Flowers small, unisexual (male) and bisexual (plants polygamous), bracteate. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 5, free, imbricate. Stamens 7 - 10, all fertile, one usually much stouter and longer than others. Torus stipitate. Carpel solitary; ovary superior, 1-loculed, l-ovuled; style eccentric. Fruits crescent shaped nuts on large, fleshy hypocarps, 1-seeded; cotyledons palano-convex.

Indigenous to S. America wherefrom A. occidentale L. has been introduced to Africa, Madagascar, West Indies and several countries of S. E. Asia; ca 15 species, 1 in India.

List of Lower Taxa