Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), also called Pará nut, edible seed of a large South American tree (Lecythidaceae family) found in the Amazon forests of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. In several countries in South America, Brazil nuts are called Brazil nuts or Brazil nuts (Spanish). The Brazil nut family, Lecythidaceae, belongs to the order Ericales, as do other well-known plants such as blueberries, blueberries, sapote, gutta-percha, tea, phlox and persimmons. Collectors harvest Brazil nuts during the wet season (January-March), when most of the fruits of the trees have fallen to the forest floor.
The fruit itself is a large capsule 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) in diameter, resembling the size of a coconut endocarp and weighing up to 2 kg (4 lb 7 oz). If you take them from the bag of mixed shelled nuts mentioned above, you will not be able to spread them. Not surprisingly, Brazil nuts didn't really take off until the Spanish and Portuguese made better forays into the jungle. Nutritionally, Brazil nuts are a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of dietary fiber (30% DV) and various dietary vitamins and minerals.
The Brazil nut comes from the Bertholletia excelsa tree, which is found throughout the Amazon rainforest, an area that spans approximately 2.7 million square miles in South America, stretching northwestern Brazil to Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. At first glance, the Brazil nut looks like little more than an oversized and expensive nut that is passed in the supermarket. Nuts contain small amounts of radium, a radioactive element, with one kilogram of nuts containing an activity between 40 and 260 becquerelos (1 and 7 nanocuries). In fact, they are more related to blueberries and persimmons than to walnuts or pecans.
The Brazil nut is native to Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil, eastern Colombia, eastern Peru and eastern Bolivia. Brazil walnut wood is prized for its quality in carpentry, flooring and heavy construction. But Brazil nuts don't fit that at all; they're actually considered seeds, since they come in large baseball-sized pods in groups of 10 to 24. Despite its name, Brazil's largest exporter of walnuts is actually Bolivia, where the nut is called Brazil nut.