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
General References
Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.
Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.
Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.
Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.
Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.
Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.
Flora of North America. efloras.org.
Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.
Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
Native American Ethnobotany DB.
Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.
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