An 8,500-square-metre cashew tree grew to be a Brazilian city's main
tourist attraction, but its rapid growth has also become a hindrance for local
residents.

PIRANGI, BRAZIL REUTERS -
From above, it looks like a regular park with trees. But, on closer
inspection, this plaza in Brazil's northeastern state of Natal is home to an
unusual phenomenon - a vast cashew tree - believed to be the largest cashew
tree in the world.

While the cashew tree has become Pirangi's main tourist attraction --
and an important source of revenue -- it has also become something of a
headache for many of the city's residents.

The controversy surrounding the 8,500-square-metre tree began in the
late nineties, when its roots started taking over a federal highway, only
allowing one car to pass at a time.

City and state officials formed a commission to discuss the future of
the 117-year-old tree, which specialists fear may die if trimmed.
The "cajueiro", which grows about three metres every year,
was last pruned in 2000, when a group of biologists who studied its structure
concluded that it was extremely vulnerable to such procedures.

Tour guide, Julio Cesar Dantas, who presents the hulking tree to
visitors every day, said it was eighty times the size of a regular cashew
tree.
"This is the plant's main stem; from here all branches originated.
The plant's age, according to a study made with the region's oldest residents,
is estimated between 115 and 120 years and the area it occupies today, is an
area of 8,500 square metres, which corresponds to 80 regular-sized cashew
trees," he said, pointing out its main root.

With an area larger than a soccer field, this cashew tree yields over
80,000 fruits from November to January -- one thousand times as much as an
ordinary one.

But along with the tree's branches, also grows a fierce debate among
the city's residents, especially those who may lose their homes soon.
The head of city's residents' association, Francisco de Oliveira, said
authorities had to rebuild the highway that runs alongside the tree.

"The traffic is intense and that worries us because it causes
problems, not only for us, who administrate the cashew tree, but also for the
cashew tree itself, which is harmed by the vehicles," he said, standing
next to the road.

Officials have not yet presented a feasible solution for the issue, but
the conflicting interests surrounding the tree only makes more difficult to
reach a consensus.

The "cajueiro", planted in 1888 according to historians, has
two genetic anomalies that caused it to grow sideways, instead of upward.
Dantas, who became a tree expert, said it development hundreds of
secondary roots that make it look like several separate trees.

"It (cashew tree) grows like this because of a genetic mutation,
which was provoked by nature, without man's influence. This genetic variation
changed the plant's DNA, causing the branches to grow too quickly and not
bearing their weight, the branches fall back to the ground and each time they
touch the earth, they create secondary roots," he said.

In 2007 alone, nearly 200 thousand tourists visited the site and paid
one dollar to walk through the tree's roots.

Brazil is one of the world's top cashew nut exporters, only behind
Vietnam, Nigeria and India.