Brazil Nut - Bronze
Brazil Nut - 45mm x 15mm - 71g
Incredibly detailed nut with an amazing story.
Brazil nuts begin as flowers high up in the canopy. Before the flowers fall to the ground and feed the forest floor many are pollinated by orchid bees with long specialised tongues. These bees are native to undisturbed rain forest and this is just one of the reasons that brazil nuts can't be grown in plantations.
Eventually the mature fruits fall to the ground where many are collected by the local castaneros (Brazil nut harvesters). A swift precise cut with a machete opens the fruit containing around 20 brazil nuts.The nuts are extracted from the pods and dried in the sun to prevent rot and ease peeling then carried out of the forest in sacks, on rafts or in canoes to the ports to be exported.Back in the forest the cycle has not ended.
The empty Brazil nut pods collect rainwater and become home for tadpoles and larva. recently scientists discovered a species of frog specialised only for breeding inside empty Brazil nut pods.
