{{Short description|Species of fruit and plant}} {{Redirect|Nance}} {{stack begin}} {{Speciesbox | image = Byrsonima crassifolia 1.jpg | image_caption = In Costa Rica | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn | author1 = Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) | author2 = IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group | name-list-style = amp | title = ''Byrsonima crassifolia'' | article-number = e.T61780518A149003401 | doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T61780518A149003401.en | year = 2019 | access-date = 19 December 2022}}</ref> | genus = Byrsonima | species = crassifolia | authority = (L.) Kunth<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tropicos.org/NameDetails.aspx?nameid=19500795 |title=''Byrsonima crassifolia'' (L.) Kunth |work=TROPICOS |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden |access-date=2010-03-30}}</ref> | synonyms = *''Malpighia crassifolia'' <small>L.</small> | synonyms_ref = <ref name="GRIN">{{GRIN | accessdate=2010-03-30}}</ref> }} {{nutritional value | name = Nance, frozen, unsweetened | image = Nanche.jpg | caption = '''{{center|Fruit}}''' | kJ=306 | protein=0.66 g | fat=1.16 g | carbs=16.97 g | fiber=7.5 g | sugars=8.31 g | calcium_mg=46 | iron_mg=0.38 | magnesium_mg=20 | phosphorus_mg=10 | potassium_mg=244 | sodium_mg=3 | zinc_mg=0.09 | manganese_mg=0.248 | vitC_mg=92.5 | thiamin_mg=0.015 | riboflavin_mg=0.018 | niacin_mg=0.29 | pantothenic_mg=0.18 | vitB6_mg=0.021 | folate_ug=8 | vitA_ug=5 | lutein_ug=569 | vitE_mg=1.25 | vitK_ug=11.9 | water=80.1g | source_usda = 1 | note=[https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/167789/nutrients Link to USDA Database entry] }} {{stack end}} '''''Byrsonima crassifolia''''' is a species of flowering plant in the family Malpighiaceae, native to tropical America. Common names used in English include '''nance''',<ref name=IUCN/> '''maricao cimun''',<ref name=GBIF>{{GBIF | id = 102295574 | taxon = ''Byrsonima crassifolia'' | access-date = 2022-01-09}}</ref> '''craboo''', and '''golden spoon'''.<ref name="GRIN"/> In Jamaica it is called '''hogberry'''.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
The plant is valued for its small (between one, and one and a quarter centimeter in diameter) round, sweet yellow fruit, which is strongly scented. The fruits have a very pungent and distinct flavor and smell. When jarred, their texture resembles that of a green or kalamata olive.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
==Description and habitat== ''Byrsonima crassifolia'' is a slow-growing large shrub or tree to {{convert|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 Colombia, 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 {{convert|1,800|m|-3|abbr=on}}.<ref name=IUCN/> It is highly drought-tolerant.<ref name="FH">{{Cite journal | last= Cesar San-Martín-Hernández, Miguel Ángel Martínez-Téllez, Otila Noema Valenzuela-Amavizca, Emmanuel Aispuro-Hernández, Mario Sánchez-Sánchez, Estela Hernández-Camarillo, Leticia Xochitl López-Martínez |first= and Eber Addí Quintana-Obregón |date=December 2023|title= Byrsonima crassifolia L. Kunth a bio-resource with potential: Overview and opportunities |journal=Folia Horticulturae|language=en|volume=35|issue=1|pages=61–75|doi= 10.2478/fhort-2023-0005 |issn=2083-5965|doi-access=free}}</ref>
==Regions of occurrence== ''B. crassifolia'' is found in a number of tropical and subtropical ecoregions of the Americas that feature conifers. One such ecoregion is the Belizean pine forests.<ref>C. Michael Hogan & World Wildlife Fund. 2012. [http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/51cbed0e7896bb431f68f5bd/ Belizean pine forests. ed. M. McGinley. Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington DC]</ref>
==Uses== {{Unreferenced section|date=January 2022}} [[File:2010.05.03.183848 Nance Guatemala City.jpg|thumb|left|Nance from Guatemala City, Guatemala]] The fruits are eaten raw or cooked as dessert.<ref name="FH"/> 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. In Nicaragua (where the fruit is called ''nancite''), it is a popular ingredient for several desserts, including ''raspados'' (a frozen dessert made from a drink prepared with nancites) and a dessert made by leaving the fruit to ferment with some sugar in a bottle for several months (usually from harvest around August–September until December); this is sometimes called "nancite in vinegar".
The fruits are also often used to prepare carbonated beverages, ice cream and juice; in Brazil, to 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''. {{clear left}} In Veracruz, Mexico, it is called ''nanche'' and it is a common dessert element that can be found in the form of popsicles (''percheronas'') and ice sorbets (''raspado''). Fruit components can be processed to make traditional and innovative food products, namely candies, cookies, cakes, candied fruits, ice creams, sorbets, jellies, juices, liqueurs, jams, nectars, pickles, and fruit drinks<ref name="FH"/>
In Panama, the wood from the tree is used as an aromatic in smoking and grilling.
==Gallery== <gallery mode=packed heights="140px"> File:Byrsonima crassifolia(Fruto).jpg|Fruit File:Nance Inflorescence (16558227361).jpg| Flowers File:Byrsonima crassifolia (7554340816).jpg| Tree </gallery>
==See also== * List of plants of Cerrado vegetation of Brazil *List of culinary fruits
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Byrsonima crassifolia|''Byrsonima crassifolia''}} {{Wikispecies-inline}} *[http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/Nance.html Purdue.edu: ''Byrsonima crassifolia'']
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2046782}}
crassifolia Category:Tropical fruit Category:Flora of Southern America Category:Flora of Mexico Category:Plants described in 1822 Category:Taxa named by Carl Sigismund Kunth