General Description/History

• this is the only species in this family and is native to a wide area of tropical rainforest in South America, including Brazil
• nuts are borne on large trees that grow up to 45m in height
• each large fruit, which looks like a coconut and weighs up to 2 kg, contains about 10 to 25 nuts
• each nut comes in a hard grey/beige shell, which has a rough texture
• the nuts themselves are elongated, 4 to 5 cm long, slightly curved and have a dark honey-brown seed coat covering the cream coloured nut
• nuts have a rich taste, and are high in saturated fat, even higher than macadamias
• they are a good source of selenium, magnesium and thiamine
• nuts are still almost entirely harvested from the wild with most supplies coming from Bolivia and Brazil
• over-harvesting has taken so many nuts that trees cannot reproduce, as a result the Brazil nut has been listed as ‘vulnerable’

Season: Summer,Autumn,Winter,Spring

Botanical Name: Bertholetia exelca (Lecythidaceae)

Alternative Names: 

Availablity: January,February,March,April,May,June,July,August,September,October,November,December

Growing Areas: