There would be nothing special about the small grove in the photo — if it weren't made up entirely of a single, remarkable tree.
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The tree is located in one of Brazil's states, and it holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cashew tree in the world, though another tree is already challenging it for the title.
It covers an area of more than 8,000 square meters — equivalent in size to 70 cashew trees combined — and produces more than 60,000 nuts per year.
According to local tradition, it was planted by a fisherman in 1888, and it continues to serve as a local landmark to this day, with a thriving tourism industry built around it.
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The tree's secret lies in a combination of two unique genetic mutations.
In ordinary trees, the trunk grows upward against gravity to reach sunlight among the surrounding trees, while the branches grow straight out to the sides. A special genetic mechanism causes the lower side of each branch to elongate slightly, gradually directing its continued growth diagonally upward and preventing it from snapping under its own weight.
A rare mutation in this particular cashew tree causes the branches to keep growing straight sideways instead, making them bow under their own weight until they touch the ground.
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The second mutation allows the cells of branches that have touched the ground to transform into roots. These roots take hold in the soil and give rise to a new trunk, which grows its own branches yet remains networked with all the other trunks — forming a single, unified tree.
Despite attempts to prune it so it won't encroach on the surrounding roads, the tree stubbornly continues to grow and expand. Perhaps, this time, it is humanity that will yield to nature — and allow the tree to spread and flourish without limits.
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👋 Hi, I'm Shlomo Strauss — follow me for more fascinating content on science and technology.