--- title: The Internet Has Gotten So Nutty Over How Cashews Grow description: Everyone is freaking out over the new realization of how cashews grow out of apples on trees. canonical: https://time.com/5675580/how-cashews-grow/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-12T13:25:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T21:38:33.000Z og:title: People Are Struggling to Come to Terms With How Cashews Grow Thanks to a World-Shattering Picture og:description: It's getting nutty og:url: https://time.com/5675580/how-cashews-grow/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd073b54e23c36e0e/698a02c14ee262123f3163e0/howcashewsgrow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2123 og:image:height: 1194 og:image:alt: Cashew apple and nuts matured and unmatured og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Are Struggling to Come to Terms With How Cashews Grow Thanks to a World-Shattering Picture twitter:description: It's getting nutty twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd073b54e23c36e0e/698a02c14ee262123f3163e0/howcashewsgrow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Are Still Trying to Come to Terms With How Cashews Grow Thanks to a World-Shattering Picture > Sponsored content. 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Use restricted to www.500px.com Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:38 PM UTCPublished: Sep 12, 2019 1:25 PM UTC Certain corners of the [internet](https://time.com/5649905/salmon-cannon-gif/) are getting very nutty over the way cashews grow. Yes, a photo of cashews minding their own business has inadvertently ushered in the [social media freakout](https://time.com/5657404/bird-or-bunny/) of the week. The addictive [snack](https://time.com/5549747/doritos-nacho-cheese-best-flavor-chip-debate-twitter/) of many a party bowl or trail mix pouch across the world is now the center of a heated discussion on the Internet. It began with this picture. “Wow! Who knew cashews look like angry, old men yelling at you to get off their lawn as they grow? They taste so much better than they look!” > [](https://twitter.com/Bumble6671/status/1172021777712721920) Are these boomerang-shaped nuts nothing more than the faces of angry old men? Have they been growing like this in plain sight this whole time? What even are these cashews doing right now? And where have we been? All valid questions for those uninitiated with the way cashews do their thing. To help contextualize this earth-shattering news about the addictive treat, cashews are simply the fruit of the cashew apple. They grow on cashew trees (appropriate!) and they are harvested from these cashew apples. They’re in cahoots with the cashew apples, which grow on branches. (That’s just the accessory fruit, which is usually the color of red or yellow or green. The cashew is the main attraction.) The cashew is not a true nut either. Let that sink in. Join the internet on a dissonant journey through the origin story of the cashew below. > [](https://twitter.com/ColleenB123/status/1171960479322902529) > [](https://twitter.com/tater101125/status/1171618296694595584) > [](https://twitter.com/ZackarysMama118/status/1171960868176875526) > [](https://twitter.com/ethanchaotic/status/1172126608775438336) > [](https://twitter.com/SarahO%5FConnell/status/1172158776515973120) > [](https://twitter.com/PatsATweetin/status/1172200563196465157) > [](https://twitter.com/harmonyalio/status/1172474958603280384) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5675580/how-cashews-grow/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5675580/how-cashews-grow/"},"headline":"People Are Still Trying to Come to Terms With How Cashews Grow Thanks to a World-Shattering Picture","datePublished":"2019-09-12T13:25:24.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T21:38:33.000Z","description":"Everyone is freaking out over the new realization of how cashews grow out of apples on trees.","url":"https://time.com/5675580/how-cashews-grow/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd073b54e23c36e0e/698a02c14ee262123f3163e0/howcashewsgrow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd073b54e23c36e0e/698a02c14ee262123f3163e0/howcashewsgrow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cashew apple and nuts matured and unmatured","caption":"How cashews grow","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5675580/how-cashews-grow/","name":"People Are Still Trying to Come to Terms With How Cashews Grow Thanks to a World-Shattering Picture"}}]}] ```