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Anacardiaceae family

Cashew Anacardium occidentale

Cashew is an introduced perennial tree, found in the Pacific Basin, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It grows to 33 ft.

More about this plant

Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree Anacardium occidentale, in the family Anacardiaceae. It is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple. The tree can grow as tall as 14 meters. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

Height: 33 ft
Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Evergreen broadleaf

In the garden

Sub-canopy / understory layer — Sits in the understory of a layered food forest or polyculture. Its deep roots also work the lower soil profile.Open guide →

derived roles

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host

Recorded feeding on Anacardium in North America, including:

Cadra cautella · Fig-Moth

Marpesia petreus · Ruddy Daggerwing

Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).

✦ Bees 4 bee visitors

4 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Cashew :

Apis mellifera · Honey Bee Anthophora wartmanni · digger bee

Apis cerana · Asian Honey Bee

Apis dorsata · Giant Honey Bee

Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →

Wildlife & visitors 4 birds · 3 mammals · 5 nectaring

Open records of who else uses Cashew — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 4 birds and 3 mammals species (fruit, seed, browse):

Anodorhynchus leari · Indigo Macaw

Amazona autumnalis · Red-Lored Amazon

Amazona albifrons · White-Fronted Amazon

Thraupis palmarum · Palm Tanager Pteropus giganteus · Indian Flying Fox

Sapajus flavius

+ 1 more species →

Epomophorus pusillus

5 adult butterfly & moth species are recorded nectaring at its flowers:

Badamia exclamationis · Brown Awl

Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).

Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.

How we know this (2) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (22) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status

[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)

[07] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[08] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

[09] Ecological value — GloBI

[10] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[12] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[13] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[14] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)

[15] Rooting depth — Fan et al. 2017 (Dryad, CC0)

[16] Mycorrhiza — FungalRoot v2.0 · Meng et al. 2024 (Dryad, CC0)

[17] Chromosomes — ChromoDB — IAPT/IOPB chromosome data series (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0)

[18] Human uses — Dr. Duke's Phytochemical & Ethnobotanical Databases (USDA, CC0)

[19] Bee visitors — Noori et al. 2026 (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0) · via GloBI

[20] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI

[21] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)

[22] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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Ecological value open data

3 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below and in Bees & wildlife.

Caterpillar host 4

Flower-visitor value derived 2

Recorded flower-visitor breadth — observations, not a nectar measurement. open data

⚠ non-native — reduced keystone value

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 4/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Introduced to the U.S.

Recorded in 2 states.

Open occurrence records place it in 3 counties across 3 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Introduced — Pacific Basin (excl. Hawaii), Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands

Recorded in 2 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? Introduced

Wetland indicator FACU

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Documented human uses Dr. Duke's

Food use 110 use-records

Historically recorded for

WartCornDiarrheaDiabetesAsthmaDysenteryPoisonLiqueurCallosityColdCongestionCoughDyspepsiaIntoxicantLeprosySkin +33 more

A historical record of how this plant has been used — not medical or dietary advice, and not a claim that it is effective or safe. Many plants are toxic; never ingest or treat with a wild plant without expert guidance and a confirmed identification. Dr. Duke's →

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Wood density low

0.45 g/cm³

light, fast wood — quick biomass for chop-and-drop mulch

Seed mass very large

4.1 g

large seed — easy to hand-collect & direct-sow; vigorous seedlings

Leaf nitrogen low

13.7 mg/g

leaf nitrogen — a rough guide to compost/mulch value

Leaf build medium

Medium

mid-range leaf build (measured leaf area per weight 8.3 mm²/mg)

Rooting depth deep

2.1 m

deep roots — drought-resilient, mines water & nutrients from depth; the deep layer of a food forest

Mycorrhiza type uncertain

Facultative

facultatively mycorrhizal — partners with soil fungi opportunistically, so it can grow with or without them; the specific type isn’t reliably documented

Chromosomes recorded

2n = 40

somatic chromosome number

Deep dive — what these mean

Wood density 0.45 g/cm³ — how heavy the wood is for its size. Denser wood = hotter, longer-burning firewood and tougher poles; lighter wood rots fast (quick mulch).

Seed mass 4.1 g — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf nitrogen 13.7 mg/g — measured leaf N. Higher = richer prunings for compost/mulch (a measured stand-in for "dynamic accumulator" claims).

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 8.3 mm²/mg)

Photosynthesis — the standard “C3” pathway most plants use, most active in cooler, moister, moderate-light conditions. (pathway C3)

Rooting depth 2.1 m — deepest documented roots. Deeper roots reach water in drought and lift nutrients from below the topsoil.

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Cashew Anacardium occidentale

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

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