Nance

In Ecuador, "Nance" usually refers to the unrelated legume Albizia pistaciifolia.

Nance
Byrsonima crassifolia fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Malpighiales Family: Malpighiaceae Genus: Byrsonima Species: B. crassifolia
Binomial name
Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) Kunth[verification needed]

Nance are trees of the species Byrsonima crassifolia – and sometimes other members of the genus Byrsonima –, widely distributed in tropical America and valued for their small, sweet, yellow fruit with a strong scent.

Other common names include Savanna Serrette (or Savanna Serret), Golden Spoon, nanche (in Mexico), nancite (in Nicaragua) and murici or muruci (in Brazil).

B. 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 southern Mexico, through the Pacific side of Central America, to Peru and Brazil; 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, or may be included in soup or in stuffing for meats. In rural Panama, the dessert prepared with the addition of sugar and flour and 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.

See also

• List of plants of Cerrado vegetation of Brazil

External links

• Media related to Byrsonima crassifolia at Wikimedia Commons
• Byrsonima crassifolia