Beware of Wild Fruits

Dear Jen & Tom,
My wife and I just got back from an amazing honeymoon in Costa Rica. It was great but I can’t show off any of the pictures of me from the trip because I had a huge blister on my upper lip that looked like a herpes cold sore!!! I don’t have the virus, so I was a bit perplexed as to why it developed.

When Sue (my wife) and I were visiting the research station in Santa Rosa National Park, a biologist helped shed light on the matter. We were discussing rainforest fruits and I remembered eating a wild cashew.

The first day, Sue and I decided to bike from Naranjo to Santa Teresa. On the way, I spotted a cashew fruit. I had seen pictures of it before and I was taken by its unusual shap: egg sized smooth skinned orange lobe with what looks like a cashew nut sewn up in a dirty wrinkled leather pouch at the end. I picked one and wanted to break the leathery pouch to get to the nut….but it wouldn’t open! So, I decided to tear through the skin with my teeth, only to feel a searing pain on my lips and gums.

The biologist laughed at my story and told me I had bitten the wrong end. I should have eaten the warm orange fruit. The plant’s survival depends on the dispersal of the seed (in the leathery part). Therefore it is designed so animals to eat the fruit, then discard the seed. To make sure the animals don’t eat the seed, the leathery portion is coated in a cyanide solution!!! I was lucky just to get away with my blister!!

--Richard M.
Londonderry, NH

Dear Richard,
It sounds like someone never got past the oral stage of development. Do you always put everything in your mouth? But even a 2 year old would have realized the fleshy orange fruit was more appetizing than the seed!!! Actually, it doesn’t require human intelligence….a monkey knows the difference!! Next time, refrain from eating wild fruits in nature.

I’m glad you and your wife had an enjoyable stay in Costa Rica.

Love, Jen and Tom