Bertholletia excelsa

The Brazil nut can reach 800 years old and is a famous trees of the neotropics. The  pods of these trees are about the size of a grapefruit and contain between 12 to 25 nuts. One tree can produce 300 pods per year. The only wild animal that can crack the pods and disperse the seeds is the agouti. As well as the agouti, humans also savour the Brazil nuts and the US imports 10 tonnes annually from harvesting wild trees. A conservation story in itself, the Brazil nut is an important resource for the Amazon Rainforest, as it is pollinated by a unique bee. For years biologists were puzzled why the trees don’t produce nuts when artificially cultivated or growing in areas of cleared rainforest. The answer was found in the unique behavioural ecology of the bee that pollinates them. The male bee requires the fragrance of a specific orchid to attract a mate and reproduce. Without the orchid there are no bees, and without bees there are no Brazil nuts. The export of Brazil nuts requires this delicate interaction between tree and pollinator, which in turn requires the conservation of the surrounding rainforest.

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