Tree Seeds Around the World: Eight Nuts and Kernels from Orchard, Forest and Palm

Start with the hazelnut, the fruit of the hazel tree, which covers any nut from the genus Corylus and is best known from Corylus avellana. It is also called the cobnut or filbert depending on the species, and in 2023 Turkey produced 57.7 percent of the world total. It turns up in praline, chocolate truffles and spreads, and its pressed oil is used for cooking and dressings.

Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization only 29 pine species give edible nuts and 20 are traded, and the biggest exporters are China, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan. Because pines are gymnosperms, these are bare seeds with no ovary around them, so they are not true nuts at all.

Argan oil is pressed from the kernels of the argan tree, which is native to Morocco and southwestern Algeria. In Morocco it is dipped up with bread at breakfast or drizzled on couscous or pasta, and this entry records a written mention in 1219 by the Egyptian doctor Ibn Al Baythar. Here the kernel is valued for its oil rather than eaten whole.

The kola nut is the seed of certain Cola trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. The seeds contain caffeine and have been used as a flavoring in carbonated soft drinks, which is where the word cola for a soft drink comes from. This is the stop where a tree seed gave its name to a global drink category.

The areca nut is the seed of the areca palm, Areca catechu, technically the seed of a berry-like fruit and not a true nut. The palm is native to the Philippines and was carried across the tropics by Austronesian migrations and trade since at least 1500 BCE, mainly for its use in the betel quid. The entry also records stark health findings, so this is a seed known for its cultural reach as well as its risks.

The candlenut, Aleurites moluccanus, is a tree in the spurge family that grows to about 30 meters and was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Its origin is unclear because people spread it so widely, and it is called kukui in Hawaii and kemiri in Indonesia and Malaysia, where the cooked nut goes into curries. The raw nut is mildly toxic, so cooking matters here.

Macadamia is a genus of four tree species native to Australia, and two of them are commercially important for the macadamia nut. Australian seeds were introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s, which was the largest producer for over a century, while South Africa has led since the 2010s. It is the only widely grown food plant native to Australia, and it was a bushfood for Aboriginal peoples.

Finish in the Amazon with the Brazil nut, Bertholletia excelsa, the seed of one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the rainforest. The fruit and its shell weigh up to about 2 kilograms together, and the nuts are notable for their selenium content. In 2024 world production reached 79,736 tonnes, with Brazil and Bolivia together supplying 87 percent.