4546.000 Anacardium L.

Suffrutices or trees with contact dermatitis-causing exudate. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, domatia usually present in abaxial secondary vein axils. Flowers in terminal and/or axillary thyrses, andromonoecious. Male flowers: calyx 5-partite; petals 5-partite, reflexed, white to light pink, darkening post pollination; disk 0; pistillode 1, very reduced; stamens (6-)8-10(-12), fertile stamens 1(-4), much larger and exserted; filaments basally connate into a staminal tube. Female flowers: perianth and disk similar to male; staminodes 0; ovary falsely 1-merous; stigma 1, obscure, reduced to a mere point. Drupe reniform, subtended by white, green, yellow, or red hypocarp (rarely absent); pericarp woody; exocarp greenish to brown to black; 1-locular. [Description by Dr Susan Pell]

Worldwide: 11 or more species in Central and South America. Anacardium occidentale is cultivated pantropically.

Mozambique: 1 cultivated taxon.