ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of ucahuba Nut. Seeds are the source of Ucahuba or Ucuiba Butter, a solid resembling Cacao butter. The seeds are threaded onto wooden spikes and used as candle-nuts by various Amerindian groups. The wood, moderately hard, is easily worked. Candlenuts are a poor man's source of energy in many tropical developing countries. The trees offer fire-wood, leaf litter at the rate of ca. 5 MT/ha, and candle-nuts for energy purposes. Reported from the South and Central American Centers of Diversity, ucahuba nut, or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate waterlogging. Costa Rica and Panama to the Guianas and Brazil and the lesser Antilles. Duke did not include V. surinamensis in the Flora of Panama.
