Economic Botany Collection

Catalogue no.:

55028

Botanical classification:

LECYTHIDACEAE Bertholletia excelsa

Common name:

Brazil nut

Geographical description:

Essequibo Sources, British Guiana, South America

Item description:

Bracelet cut out of the fruit

Size:

8cm diameter, 1cm high

Plant information:

Can grow to 50m or more and the large fruit can weigh up to 2.2kg. It relies on one species of insect for pollination and upon the Agouti (South American rodent) to spread its seed. Native to tropical South America and the West Indies. Trees can reach 500-800 years old.

Donor date:

28/08/1907

Donor:

Charles Wilgress Anderson - was trained at Kew and the Imperial Institute, London and then was assigned to the forestry branch of the Department of Lands and Mines in British Guyana. The surveys he conducted to gather quantitative data of the trees in the forests were the earliest of their kind on Guyana. Anderson made 34 expeditions in easily accessible forests between 1908 and 1916. His successor, Mr. Ludovic Smith Hohenkerk, continued this work and they are credited with the first Forest Valuation Surveys in the colony.