Story:
Thousand Year Old World’s Largest Cashew Tree – Maior Cajueiro do Mundo.
In 1994, the Guinness Book of Records set aside a separate column for the world’s largest cashew tree called Maior Cajueiro do Mondo located in Natal, Brazil. The gigantic tree has grown from an amalgamation of two genetic tissues. Such tissues allow the branches of the tree to grow outwards rather than upwards. Gradually, hence, the branches tend to stoop towards the ground and eventually make for a root. This new root further grows into a new tree.
The massive tree occupies 80,000 square feet of land or roughly five acres. It is guessed to be around thousand years old. One can easily climb a tower to view this tree from a vantage point or for that matter, even climb up through the roots.
You can heartily go and pay a visit to this enormous work of nature. However, beware of the orange caterpillars. These gorgeous looking insects are poisonous. They swamp over the tree seasonally and are a size of a finger.
The beauty of this tree is that it produces 60,000 pieces of cashew fruit each year. As for some people it may come as a surprise that a cashew nut is not the fruit but a single nut is attached only to the bottom of the fruit!
Analysis:
The message talks about the world’s largest cashew tree in Brazil, that it is spread over five acres of land, and yields about 60,000 pieces of cashew fruit each year. Yes, it is a fact, but has some misinformation, the cashew tree is not spread across five acres as such.
World’s Largest Cashew Tree
Maior cajueiro do mundo or Cajueiro de Pirangi, which itself translates to English as world’s largest cashew tree and cashew tree of Pirangi respectively is spread over an area of 8,500 square meters (more than 90,000 square feet), according to a CNN report (ireport.cnn.com) in 2010. However, this amounts to just above 2 acres of land, and not five acres as mentioned in the message, but nevertheless, this is equivalent to 70 times the size of a normal cashew tree and looks like a forest. This largest cashew tree is located in Pirangi beach, Natal, Brazil and has this unusual size because of two genetic issues. The branches of the cashew tree grow outwards instead of upwards, and with time, they bend towards the ground and then take root. This new rooted branch is again capable of growing up and further outwards, and this is how the cashew tree has grown to such a massive size. Few websites, including World Guides, Brazil travel buddy and a report of CNN have mentioned Maior cajueiro do mundo being registered in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1994, as the World’s Largest Cashew Tree.
It’s Age
A legend says that the cashew tree was planted by a fisherman named Luiz Inacio de Oliveira in 1888, and he died at 93 under the shade of the tree. However, based on the nature of its growth, the massive cashew tree is also estimated to be more than one thousand years old. This largest cashew tree of the world produces up to 80,000 cashew fruits when in season, from November to January, each with a single cashew nut hanging from the bottom of the fruit. This unusual cashew tree has become a special natural attraction in Brazil. The video below is a brief description of this world’s largest cashew tree in Brazil.
As mentioned in the message, if you are visiting the place, be careful with the big Orange Caterpillars on the cashew tree, they look very attractive, but are extremely poisonous. Also note that these cashew shells that grow on trees are poisonous and can cause irritation and adverse reaction. These fruits go through high temperature roasting process that removes the traces of these harmful chemicals and gives us the tasty and healthy cashew nuts.
Hoax or Fact:
Fact with some misinformation.
References:
Maior cajueiro do mundo
Maior Cajueiro do Mundo – Brazil travel buddy
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