Cashews come from a tropical tree formally known as Anacardium occidentale
What is Cashew Nut? The cashew nut is a fruit that grows on tropical evergreen cashew trees. The cashew nut is usually eaten without any cooking required, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or butter The tree produces a fleshy, pear-shaped stalk called a cashew apple on its branches. Yet, this part of the plant isn’t the fruit. Instead, the true fruit is a smaller, kidney-shaped structure that grows underneath the cashew apple, also known as a drupe. Inside the fruit is where you find the edible seed that most people know as a cashew nut Thus, because of the plant’s structural configuration, the edible portion of a cashew is botanically classified as a drupe seed. The seed and its outer shell are technically considered both the nut and the fruit, but the shell is inedible due to the presence of a toxic substance. This is why you only ever see shelled cashews at your local market