Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Neighbor's cashew tree

Looking out our bedroom window, you'd never know that we live in the second largest city in this State of Pará. There are still lots of trees around to soften our eyeballs against light and an increasing amount of traffic coming up Travessa Turiano Meira. Most of the trees are fruit trees of one kind or another, like this very old cashew tree two lots down from our house. To be a cashew tree, it's gigantic! It must be more than 20 meters high and spreads out from one side of the yard to the other. Interestingly enough, the fruits are relatively small ones, compared to the large and colorful commercialized cashews seen throughout the country. I assume this must be some variant of the savanna cashew, which is native to this region along the Tapajós River. The owners of the lot also have a small farm on the Amazon floodplain, so they alternate between the two. It's a big family with many kids and grandkids, so it's good that they can spread out.

1 comment:

GingerV said...

I saw cashew trees on a farm outside of Natal. low with branches spreading sideways just above the ground. high max maybe 20 feet. possibly the more effort the tree has to put into supporting a large green cap the less it can put into its fruit.