Wild Cashew

Meet the Wild Cashew (Anacardium excelsum), or Espavel if you’re speaking Spanish—a tall tree hailing from the same family as mangoes and cashews (Anacardiaceae). With its smooth, cylindrical trunk and mango-scented resinous sap, you’ll often find it lounging by riverbanks, thriving in seasonally dry tropical forests.

The Wild Cashew is a team player in nature’s ecosystem. Its tiny white flowers are a bee favorite, drawing in plenty of buzzing admirers, while its edible fruits are a hot commodity for monkeys (especially the endangered Black-crowned Central American Squirrel Monkey), Collared Peccaries, bats, and birds. Talk about hosting the ultimate wildlife buffet!

Not just a natural charmer, the Wild Cashew is also a favorite for agroforestry systems, like those used by Kuna farmers in Panama. Plus, its durable wood is a go-to for construction molds. But don’t let its versatility fool you—it’s got a slow and steady growth pace, taking decades to reach its full glory. This means logging and habitat fragmentation hit it hard, causing declines in places like Panama and Colombia.