Dipteryx alata

It is known in Spanish as almendro (almond) in southern Bolivia's Santa Cruz Department, almendrillo in Pando in northern Bolivia, and shihuahuaco in the Department of Madre de Dios in southern Peru. In these last two regions, it shares the same name with Dipteryx micrantha. Both tree species are also known as mawi in the Ese Ejja language spoken there. The common name baru appears to be the most used in Brazilian Portuguese. A long list of other names used in Brazil have been recorded; some of these names are barujo, coco-feijão, cumaruna, cumarurana, cumbaru, emburena-brava feijão-coco and imburana-brava. A number of names, such as cumaru and pau-cumaru, are shared with the closely related Amazonian D. odorata, the tonka bean or cumaru tree, due to the similarity of the two trees. Harri Lorenzi compiled most of these names in 1992, culled from the herbarium sheets he had collected, and the names can be traced to specific regions. ==Description==

The tree can measure up to in height and in diameter. It has compound leaves with 6 to 14 leaflets. The greenish-white flowers are in diameter. . The form of the fruit (a bean pod) is ovoid and contains juicy flesh within. The fruit has an average weight of 25 g and average dimensions of 52.40 ± 4.48 mm for length, and 38.31 ± 4.05 mm for width. Of these: • 42% is pulp • 53% is ligneous endocarp • 5% is seed == Taxonomy ==

The German botanist Julius Rudolph Theodor Vogel named the species alata, which means "winged" and refers to the winged petiole of the leaves. As a legume, this tree belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae; this is also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the bean, or pea, family. The Dipterygeae tribe is an early branching of the Faboideae subfamily of the legumes, dating ~58 million years and preceding staple legumes such as soybeans, peas or peanuts by ~10 million years. It is quite distant from other less-known legumes such as Inga, Parkia, Tylosema, or tamarinds). == Distribution and habitat ==

It is native to Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru. Bolivia: It has been recorded in northwestern Bolivia in the province of Abel Iturralde (in northern La Paz Department) Brazil: It can be found in suitable habitat throughout central and western Brazil. and Concepción. ==Ecology==

Habitat Of all the species of Dipteryx this species has the most southerly distribution and is the only one which grows in regions with marked seasons. but also in tropical riverine and/or gallery forests, seasonally semi-deciduous tropical forests and Amazonian savannahs. A tree will produce about 150 kg of fruit per harvest in alternating years, being pollinated by native bees. The fruits are food for birds and small mammals, such as rodents, bats, and monkeys. == Conservation ==

According to D.K. Requena Suarez, an assessor writing for the IUCN in 2021, this species is vulnerable primarily due to its usage as timber and habitat loss by conversion of the Brazilian cerrado to intensive farming. == Uses ==

in July It is used as lumber, for charcoal production, and shade in pastures, by the indigenous peoples of its range. The fruits are often used as cattle feed. The seeds are a nutritious part of the local communities' diet.. Since 2024, Baru nut has gained recognition in the nuts industry as a daily snack. According to Alexiades some among the Ese Ejja people, which have recently started using the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca, see visions of concrete houses under the influence of this drug, which according to a source interviewed by Alexiades represents a tree of this species. Alexiades theorizes that this tree is to be considered a "teacher plant" in the new ayahuasca shamanism that the Ese Ejja have adopted and that it, in specific, and trees in general, represents the "future". Baru seed The baru seed, also known as the baru nut, baru almond, or chiquitanian almond, is the seed of Dipteryx alata. It is classified as a tertiary grain legume, as its supply chain is still limited. Atypically among legume crop plants, baru seeds develop from a tree and are dispersed by animals, particularly birds, bats, and rodents. Baru seeds are mild in flavor with a taste similar to peanuts, almonds, cashews, and pistachios and are often served in similar ways in Western cuisines, roasted and salted, though it's also consumed raw. The botanical definition of a "nut" is a fruit whose ovary wall becomes hard at maturity. Using this criterion, the baru seed is not a nut given its unique fruit. However, it was initially translated in English as "nut" due to the first internationally published articles translating the word "castanha" from Portuguese. Baru seeds are highly nutritious and rich in: antioxidants (mainly tocopherol)s, protein, dietary fiber, omega-6 fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and zinc. Baru seeds should be served after heating through boiling, baking, or roasting, which deactivates a trypsin inhibitor enzyme. The trypsin inhibitor, if not deactivated, will not allow the high protein content in baru seeds to be digested. Baru seeds are used mostly as an occasional salted snack by local communities since manually extracting them is difficult. In Canada and the United States, baru seeds are used as a snack and ingredient and are slowly being adopted as a peanut substitute. Individually, they are eaten dry-roasted. Allergies Baru seeds come from one of the earliest branches of legumes (called Dipterygeae) and did not evolve some characteristics of more derived, commonly consumed legumes. This applies to proteins similar to allergenic ones present in peanuts, soybeans or peas, for example, bearing no risk of cross-reactivity. They are also unrelated to tree nuts. However, due to their early-stage processing chain, there is a possibility of cross-contamination with native nuts from Brazil such as cashews and Brazil nuts if processed in a shared facility. ==References==