Buchanania lanzan is a deciduous tree of the cashew family, native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, grown mainly for its edible seeds (charoli nuts) harvested from the wild. It is rarely cultivated commercially, so care information below reflects general knowledge of the species.
Family
Anacardiaceae (Cashew family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then mostly rely on seasonal rain once the tree is mature.
Soil
Well-drained loam or sandy loam
Temperature
20–40 °C; protect from frost
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Indian Subcontinent to China (S. Yunnan) and Indo-China
Climate
wet tropical
About
Buchanania lanzan, commonly known as charoli nut, almondette, Cuddapah almond, calumpong, Hamilton mombin, is a deciduous tree in the family Anacardiaceae. The charoli tree is native to the Indian subcontinent, South Central China, and much of Southeast Asia.
The charoli tree produces fruit that is edible to humans. The seeds are used as a cooking spice, especially in India. Charoli seeds are also used in the Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha systems of medicine.
How to grow it
The species is not commercially cultivated in India. The fruit is collected by local people from the forests and sold directly to the local markets. With a potential annual production of 5000 metric tonnes, Chhattisgarh is the highest-producing state in India for charoli fruit. Leafhoppers, mealybugs, and bark-eating caterpillars (Indarbela spp.) are important pests of B. cochinchinensis, while gummosis and powdery mildew represent important pathogens.
Where it grows
The charoli tree is native to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China (south-central and Hainan), India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Western Himalayas. It grows in the wet tropical biome.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Buchanania lanzan by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.