 Byrsonima crassifolia is a species of flowering plant in the acerola
family, Malpighiaceae, that is native to tropical America. It is
valued for its small, sweet, yellow fruit, which are strongly
scented.
Common names include Nance, craboo, kraabu, Savanna Serrette (or
Savanna Serret) and Golden Spoon.
Byrsonima crassifolia is a slow-growing large shrub or tree to 33
ft (10 m). Sometimes cultivated for its edible fruits, the tree is
native and abundant in the wild, sometimes in extensive stands, in
open pine forests and grassy savannas, from central Mexico, through
Central America, to Peru, Bolivia and Brazil; it also occurs in
Trinidad, Barbados, Curaçao, St. Martin, Dominica, Guadeloupe,
Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and throughout Cuba and
the Isle of Pines. The nance is limited to tropical and subtropical
climates. In Central and South America, the tree ranges from
sea-level to an altitude of 6,000 ft (1,800 m). It is highly
drought-tolerant.
The fruits, also called nance, are eaten raw or cooked as
dessert. In rural Panama, the dessert prepared with the addition of
sugar and flour, known as pesada de nance, is quite popular. The
fruits are also made into dulce de nance, a candy prepared with the
fruit cooked in sugar and water.
The fruits are often used to prepare carbonated beverages, flavor
mezcal-based liqueurs, or make an oily, acidic, fermented beverage
known as chicha, the standard term applied to assorted beer-like
drinks made of fruits or maize. Nance is used to distill a rum-like
liquor called crema de nance in Costa Rica. Mexico produces a licor
de nanche. |
