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Cashew’s reported twig test does not justify calling it fire resistant.
The FLAMITS database, published through Dryad and Global Ecology and Biogeography, reports an ignition frequency of 100% for live cashew twigs sampled in October and tested under an epiradiator. The tested twigs ignited every time under those experimental conditions, a finding that gives reason for caution.
Ignition frequency describes how often tested material catches fire. It does not, by itself, describe how much heat that material releases or how a whole tree will behave in a wildfire. The distinction matters because the result belongs to live twigs under a particular test setup. Their response is useful information about cashew, but extending it to the entire tree beside a house would ask the measurement to answer a larger question.
FLAMITS preserves experimental context and does not apply a single fire-resistance threshold across different kinds of measurements. Its ignition figure therefore does not amount to a recommendation or a settled verdict for cashew. For a homeowner choosing a tree for fire resistance, the practical conclusion is limited but clear: the twig result warrants caution and offers no basis for assuming that cashew will resist ignition.
Form
tree
Rated in
Global
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
Fire ecology context
Placement evidence
Evidence regions
Global
Maintenance
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in PR, VI.
Native range
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed without a rating (26)Corroboration (26 rows from 1 source)
26 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study deOliveira2021: de Oliveira, M. D., & Giongo, M. (2022). Relationship between moisture content and flammability of Cerrado species in Southern Tocantins. Floresta, 52, 122-130.
Shared row context: plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site deOliveira2021-1; sampling october.
Primary study Okafor2020: Okafor, V.N., Okafor, U.W., Anyalebechi, R.I., Obiadi, M.C., Obiefuna, J.N., & Okonkwo, C.P. (2020). Density effects and its relationship with major flame characteristics of selected fire tolerant trees in south-east Nigeria: a look at oven and sun dried timbers. Journal of chemical society of Nigeria, 45, 852-862.
Shared row context: plant part wood; fuel live; device burning bench; site Okafor2020-1; sampling ND.
“time to flaming (s): 4”
FLAMITS record 17059; Ignitability measurement; predrying yes.
