The Egg Nut, Couepia longipendula, known also as Castanha de galinha and Pendula Nut is a tropical, rain forest, evergreen nut bearing tree, indigenous to Central and Western Amazonian region. The Egg Nut is a large tree, up to 30 meters or more in height and with a trunk up to 1.8 meters in diameter. It is adapted to heavy, unproductive, clay oxisol or ferralsol soils; soils with dominance of oxide minerals such as bauxite, in the lowland rain forests.

Couepia longipendula leaves are simple, oblong elliptic to narrow and tapering to a pointed apex, up to 16cm long and 8cm wide. The flowering parts of a plant are set up on a stalk of drooping panicles of bisexual white flowers. The tree produces the first flowers when 4-5 years old.

Egg Nut Fruit

The Fruit of the Egg Nut is an obovoid to ellipsoid drupe, 4-6cm long, and 4 cm in diameter, pubescent with a hard, woody and fibrous, 6mm thick pericarp that contains a white to light green kernel (nut), 3 cm long and 2 cm wide with excellent flavor. The tree is growing in abundance in the local forests, produces high yields and the nuts are very popular.

Nuts are consumed roasted or pounded and mixed with sugar and cassava flour which has a pleasing flavor resembling Brazil nuts and Pomegranate pips when fresh, a Brazil nut-like flavor after short storage and date-like after a few weeks. Kernels are also used by local people to extract oil for use in cooking. It contains some unusual polyunsaturated fatty acids. Oil from nuts is also used for soap-making.

Fallen ripe fruits must be quickly harvested before they can sprout, rot or removed by small gnawers and wild pigs. Nuts can be easily extracted with a knife. Dry nuts can be stacked away for several months but quickly degenerate under moist conditions and high temperatures.

Egg Nut Propagation Methods

Tree propagation is by seed. Seeds germinate within weeks of falling from tree onto moist ground; seeds don’t store well and viability is quickly lost. Early growth is fast but later slowing down. The tree attains 2-3 meters in height by the time is 4-5 years old.

Trees that produce nuts with thinner shells are said to exist in the forest. Timber of the tree is heavy, hard and difficult to work. It is used for building, carpentry and roofing frames. Couepia longipendula is a member of the family Chrysobalanaceae the genus Couepia.

Egg Nut, Couepia longipendula

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