The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is a tropical evergreen that produces the cashew nut and the cashew apple.
The cashew nut is served as a snack or used in recipes, like other nuts, although it is actually a seed. The cashew apple is like a fruit, whose pulp can be processed into a sweet, astringent fruit drink or distilled into liqueur.
The shell of the cashew nut yields derivatives that can be used in many applications from lubricants to paints, and other parts of the tree have traditionally been used for snake-bites and other folk remedies.