Category Archives: Ethnobotany

Cashews, Mangoes, Pistachios & Poison Ivy are in the same family

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This is the Anacardiaceae family, with more than 400 species mostly tropical, while a few are present in North America and Europe, such is the case of Sumac, Rhus, and the infamous Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans).

Well known edible members of this family are: Pistachios that are native to Western Asia, and Mango which is native to India; actually its scientific name is Mangifera indica.

Cashews are native to Costa Rica and Central America. The fresh cashew nut has a substance inside, that produce a big burn and rash in skin and mouth, at the same time this is a highly valuable product known as Cashew Nut Shell Liquid or CNSL, ingredient that have special structural features for transformation into specialty chemicals and high value polymers, this is important considering the fact that, since this is a renewable resource, is better than synthetics.

Cashews in Costa Rica are harvested during March and April.

One thing is the cashew nut, and a different thing is the cashew itself, this last one is a kind of fruit to which it’s attached the nut, this fleshy fruit has an aroma some people love while others dislike, the most common way of preparation of this fruit is doing a tasteful juice mixed with water and sugar.
A quite interesting experience is to burn in wood fire a raw cashew nut, this CNSL highly flammable, and while it burns produces impressive tiny explosions. Kids shouldn’t try this without parent’s supervision, nor bite the nut raw, otherwise this juice, painful and caustic will burn the kids lips and tongue. Get ready and click right now for booking this tour 

*TIP:
What to bring in a Limón rain forest tour:

A rain forest cup

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Calathea is a genus part of Marantheaceae family, related to bananas and heliconias, marks a difference the presence of a pulvinus connecting the leaf with the stem. This pulvinus, aloud a broader range of movement so the leaf acquires a bigger amount of sunlight through out the day.

This was the original source of material for wrapping a pre-columbian meal known as Tamal, it was also used for covering dead bodies as part of a funerary ritual of some ethnic groups, now days tamales are wrapped with banana leaves because they are more abundant.

Many species in this genus present a whitish to silvery pubescence under the leaf, no known yet by science it such pubescence has any function serving the plant.

In the sequence of images shows how breaking the central vein of the leaf, then this folds in itself and ready, we have a cup in order to pick up water from a spring or creek.

Heliconias

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Over 200 species of Heliconia in Central and South America, only three are found outside this region, in Solomon Islands and somewhere in Africa, and in this places those heliconias are not colorful as in the big majority found in tropical Americas, but green, and this is because in these places there are no hummingbirds, so Heliconias are bat pollinated, and bats need no colors in order to find their target.

All this profusion of color in what we think is a flower really comes from modified leaves also known as bracts, this modification of leaves into colorful and hard-tissue apparatus, plays the same function as in petals in roses, which is to advertise like in a billboard: "Please Mr Hummingbird come to drink nectar so I´l be pollinated". Such strategy may be related to the heavy rain that quickly destroys petals in this environment, all these bracts are long lasting, and if you observe carefully, you will probably find the tiny cream-colored tiny flowers hidden inside de bract.

Ready for a heliconia related shore excursion in Port Limón?