The Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa) :: Botany

The brazil nut Nut (Bertholletia excelsa)The brazil nut Nut is the fruit of a tree that sires generally mad in rainforests. Castanheiro do Para, which is the Brazilian name given to this tree, is arrange in many Amazonian states of Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Venezuela and Ecudor. It is most pervalent in the Brazilian states of Marahao, Mato Grosso, Acre, Para, Rondonia, and the Amazonas. The tree is enormous, oftentimes attaining the height of 160 feet or more. The fruit is a large orbiculate woody capsule or pod and measures an average of 6 inches in diameter and good deal weigh up to 5 pounds. The fruit pods grow at the ends of thick branches, then ripens and falls from the tree from January to June. Inside separately fruit pod is 12 to 25 Brazil nuts with their proclaim indvidual shell(1).Brazil nuts atomic number 18 harvested at woodlets and in the wild. Plantations are cosmos developed in various parts of the Amazon. Fazenda Aruana is the owner of a 12,000 hectare crea tor cattle ranch, partially converted to a Brazil Nut plantation in 1980. By January of 1990, 318,660 Brazil nut trees were planted on 3341 hectares of land. Fazendas authoritative intent was to plant Brazil Nut trees in a 20 by 20 meter grids and allow cattle grazing betwixt the trees. The trees in the Aruana plantation are the result of grafting high give up clones from the region of Abufari Amazonas were Brazil nuts are know for their large fruits and seeds. As a result of fertilization from the same clones, the fruit production among clones has been low(2). another(prenominal) danger in using so few clones is the ability to disdain attack of disease and insects.The bulk of the Brazil nuts that are harvested are done so in the wild. They are harvested during a five to six month period in the rainy season. The fruits, witch weigh from .5 to 2.5 kilograms and chair ten to twenty five seeds, are gathered immediately after they fall. This minimizes the chance of insect or fungal attack on seeds. Brazil nuts are also carried away by animals. The number of pods can range form 63 to 216 per tree(). Most of the pods gathered in the wild are sent down river to processing plants were they are opened prohibited of the pod and packaged.The brazil nut has a major impact on local Amazonian economies. The numbers on total production are estimates overdue to the fact figures are hard to get from the Amazon.