The Canarium Nut, Canarium indicum, also known as Galip Nut, is a large, tropical nut bearing tree that grows to 40 meters in height and 30 meters in canopy diameter, with a tree trunk diameter of up to 1.5 meters. It is indigenous to PNG, Eastern Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and particularly distributed and common in the latter two countries.

Canarium indicum is a member of the family Burseraceae the genus Canarium. The species has a great, so far largely unexploited, economic potentiality for commercial development and export, primarily because of its abundance and non-perishable nut-in-shell.

The flowers are small, 1 cm across staged in terminal panicles, 15-40 cm long, yellowish white in color. Flowering appears to be initiated by changes in day length.
In PNG and the Solomon Islands, the species is dioecious, with separate male and female flowers being borne on different trees.

In Vanuatu trees might also bear hermaphrodite flowers plus female flowers; or hermaphrodite flowers plus male flowers. The proportionality of hermaphrodite and uni-sexual flowers varies substantially from one tree to another.

The leaves are shiny to dark green with 6-8 pairs of leaflets on a spine to 30 cm long. Individual leaflets are oblong-obovate and generally 7-28 cm long by 3-10 cm wide.

Canarium fruits are borne on straight or slightly drooping stems, which are kept, clear of the canopy. The fruit is a rounded drupe, 3-6cm long and 2-4 cm wide and commonly green when immature, turning deep dark green to black when ripe. The mesocarp or outer fleshy skin of some species, Canarium odontophyllum, is also edible.

The Canarium nut kernels are a significant seasonal food crop. They are nutritious and have high protein content (8-14%). They are eaten fresh, roasted or smoked. They might be consumed as a snack food or added into different cooked dishes. The ground kernel of Canarium nut can be used as a topping on ice cream.

The species is easily propagated from seed. The seed (nut-in-shell) is sown in 1 cm deep soil directly into the final field position. The species doesn't appear to be predisposed or damaged by any specific pest or disease.

Under good conditions Canarium indicum trees begin flowering about 5-7 years after planting. The plant favors a region with an annual rainfall of 1800-4000 mm.

Trees can be heavily pruned during fruit collection. This will result into a low fruit set the following year, followed by a very heavy crop the subsequent year. As an alternative way trees can be differentially managed through pruning to produce a less varying yield of nuts each year from a given grove or group of trees.

Canarium, Canarium indicum

The key to successful fruit and nut production is the presence of a beneficial environment for the trees that bear them.

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