Cashew Family
Anacardiaceae (an-a-kard-ee-AY-see-ee)
Iconic Features
- Woody shrubs and trees
- Clusters of small pale flowers
- Fruit a fleshy drupe
Description (Jepson)
- Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
- 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
- Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
- Flower parts in fours and fives
- Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
- Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
- Taproot system
- Woody shrubs or trees
- Leaves
- Simple (not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets)
- Generally aromatic
- Alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem)
- New and aging leaves often turn brilliant shades of red
- Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) a panicle (branching stem with flowers opening from the bottom up) or raceme (unbranched stem with stalked flowers opening from the bottom up)
- Small pink or white flowers
- Usually 5 petals and 5 sepals (usually green, outer flower parts)
- Usually unisexual, with male and female flowers on separate plants (dioecious)
- Bisexual and unisexual flowers (either all male or all female) can occur on the same plant
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
- Fruit is a drupe (a fleshy fruit with usually 1 seed in a hard inner shell — a stone fruit)
Notes
- Approximately 850 species worldwide
- Includes cashew, pistachio, and mango
- Plants have a milky or resinous sap, which may be poisonous or result in contact dermatitis
- Scientific name from the included genus Anacardium (cashews), from the Greek prefix ana-, “upwards,” and cardium, “heart,” perhaps referring to the nut of the fruit, which is outwardly located
- Common name from the Assyrian for “turning red”
- Poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) is the only representative of this family at Edgewood
Browse Edgewood Plants in this Family
