Wednesday, March 11, 2009

♥ Cashew Apple Photo's..

The cashew apple “fruit” is not really a fruit, but an enlarged fleshy stem that produces the seed.The flesh has the consistency of a mango, and the flavor is somewhat similar in taste.Cashew apple “fruit” is sweeter when fully ripe, but if it falls off the tree you would have to race the many other creatures that want to eat it.What appears to be the fruit of the cashew tree is an oval or pear-shaped accessory fruit or false fruit that develops from the receptacle of the cashew flower. Called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as "jocote de marañón", it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long. It is edible, and has a strong "sweet" smell and a sweet taste. The pulp of the cashew apple is very juicy, but the skin is fragile, making it unsuitable for transport. It is often used as a flavor in agua fresca.
The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped drupe that grows at the end of the pseudofruit. The drupe develops first on the tree, and then the peduncle expands into the pseudofruit. Within the true fruit is a single seed, the cashew nut. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the cashew is a seed.