Cashew

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Major honey crop — yields a surplus in good years

Which bees, and why

Cashew is strongly dependent on insect pollination and nut set rises substantially where bees are present, which makes hive placement genuinely worth paying for. Beekeeping and cashew production are increasingly promoted together in West Africa.

Worth knowing

A good dry-season nectar and pollen source across the tropics.

Flowering

In flower

November to February (northern hemisphere)

A dry-season flow, with timing varying by hemisphere and region.

When nectar flows

Generous from a mature orchard, with very large numbers of small flowers.

Year-to-year variation

Reliable where orchards are extensive. Insecticide use during flowering is the principal risk to colonies.

What it does to the honey

Contributes a tangy resinous character with a caramelised base and a faintly astringent finish — quite unlike the mild nut.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun on poor sandy free-draining soil in a frost-free climate with a marked dry season. It tolerates drought well and dislikes waterlogging.

Size

6-12 m tall with a very broad spreading crown.

Native range

Northeastern Brazil. Grown commercially across West Africa, India, Vietnam and East Africa.

Suits

Large gardens, Orchard

• Thrives on poor sandy soil where more demanding crops fail, which is why it suits the West African coastal belt.
• Grafted trees fruit within three years; seedlings take longer.
• Frost-tender and unsuited to temperate cultivation.

What it looks like

A spreading evergreen tree with leathery rounded leaves and panicles of small pink-striped flowers, followed by the distinctive kidney-shaped nut hanging beneath a swollen red or yellow fleshy stalk.