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Lecythis zabucajo
''Lecythis zabucajo'',〔http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=597352-1〕 sapucaia or paradise nut, is a large nut-producing tree occurring in the Guianas, Suriname, Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras and Brazil, and which distribution range is much the same as that of the greater spear-nosed bat (''Phyllostomus hastatus''). Although not singling out ''Lecythis zabucajo'', Jacques Huber noted in 1909 that fruit bats played the most important role in seed dispersal in Amazonian forests.〔(Sapucaia Nut Dispersal by Greater Spear-nosed Bats in Trinidad )〕 The quality of its nuts led to the species' being introduced to numerous tropical countries, notably Trinidad, where it has flourished. The nuts are a valuable food resource and yield oil suitable for cooking and domestic use.
This species is closely related to the Brazil nut, both belonging to the family Lecythidaceae and having coconut-sized fruits. The tree's large woody gourd-like fruits with edible white flesh are used for water vessels and for ornamental purposes. The fruit is called 'monkey pot', a name used for a number of other species, including ''Lecythis elliptica'', ''Lecythis grandiflora'', and ''Lecythis pisonis''. The name is said to derive from baiting an empty fruit with food and fixing it to a low branch; a monkey can easily insert its paw through the opening, but cannot withdraw it once it has grasped the contents.
The unusual shape and size of the pendant woody capsule, with its lid or operculum, is shared by other Lecythidaceae genera such as ''Couroupita'', ''Bertholletia'' and ''Grias''. The family is ecologically important in the Amazon Rainforest, and a 2006 survey sampling 277,069 trees, found it to be the third most abundant family, while ''Eschweilera'' is represented by more trees than any other genus. The nuts and arils are highly nutritious so that on maturing they are soon removed by animals. Bats, particularly ''Phyllostomus hastatus'', play an important role in dispersal of the species as they eat the aril and have to remove the nut from the capsule in order to do so.〔(The New York Botanical Garden )〕 The genus ''Lecythis'' is thought to concentrate the trace element Selenium in its seeds, which, while an essential part of a balanced diet in small quantities, selenoproteins being important antioxidant enzymes, may lead to poisoning if taken excessively.〔http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/835797〕
==History==
Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet (1720–1778) first described ''Lecythis zabucajo'' as a result of his two-year stay in French Guiana between 1762 and 1764, when he held the office of Apothecary Botanist. During this period he gathered material for his book (''Histoire des Plantes de la Guyane Françoise'' ) which was published in 1775. Aublet's ill-health cut short his stay in Guiana, and after a brief stay in Haiti he returned to Paris in 1765.〔http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aublet,_Jean_Baptiste_Christophe_Fus%C3%A9e〕
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