Plant · P-576

Pili Nut

Canarium ovatum

Pili is a large tropical nut tree from the Philippines, grown for a kernel that is 71 percent fat, rich in calcium, phosphorus and potassium, eaten raw or roasted, and pressed into an oil comparable in quality to olive oil. Its resin, traded as Manila or Philippine gum elemi, is a commercial product in its own right, used in plastics, printing inks, perfumes and ship repair. It is grown deliberately as a windbreak in typhoon-prone regions, since it resists strong wind well beyond what most trees survive. It needs a genuinely frost-free, humid tropical climate and full sun - it has no shade tolerance at all - and, being collected largely from forest that is shrinking, is assessed Vulnerable by the IUCN.