Nuts! Behold the world's largest cashew tree, which covers two acres and looks like a mini FOREST (and it's still growing)
- The tree, located in a park next to an urban beach in Brazil, is a major draw for Instagramming tourists
- It is the size of 70 regular cashew trees, with some of its limbs 164ft away from the main trunk
- The tree is recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest cashew tree in the world
A cashew tree in Brazil has grown to cover a staggering two acres (8,500 square metres/91,500 square feet).
It resembles a mini forest and has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest cashew tree in the world – and it’s still growing.
The limbs of the tree – which is the size of about 70 regular cashew trees - spread out an incredible 50 metres (164ft) from the central trunk, Guinness explains.
And that’s thanks to a couple of genetic mutations – one being that the branches largely grow sideways.
The other leads to multiple sets of roots being established when these branches sag to the ground.
Guinness continues: ‘Its prodigious size is the consequence of a genetic mutation that allows four of the tree’s five branches to put down new sets of roots whenever they touch the ground. Over time, these points become secondary trunks that are effectively clones of the original tree.’
Talk about branching out.
The one branch that stopped growing is known as ‘minimum wage’ by the locals.
The tree - known in Portuguese as ‘maior cajueiro do mundo’, or simply ‘largest cashew tree in the world’, and anacardium occidentale in Latin – is located in Pirangi do Norte, an urban beach near Natal, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Norte.
When it was planted and by whom isn’t entirely certain, but the consenus appears to be fisherman Luis Inacio de Oliveira in 1888. Though there is a theory that it’s around 1,000 years old.
Not surprisingly, Instagramming tourists have twigged that it’s a rather interesting spectacle – there are 18,000 images on Instagram tagged with #maiorcajueirodomundo.
Shots taken from a viewing platform in one corner are particularly popular.
Some pruning of the tree is probably inevitable. It is rooted in a park established especially for it, but without some maintenance will overrun a main road on the perimeter.
A small admission fee is charged for viewing the tree. Click here for more information.
The FCO currently advises British nationals against all but essential international travel.
