Gevuina Nut

Gevuina avellana is an evergreen tree or large shrub, usually 5 to 12 metres tall, with glossy pinnate leaves and creamy-white flowers in spidery clusters. The fruit is a round drupe about 2 cm across that turns from green to red and finally black when ripe. Inside is a hard, brown, thin shell enclosing a creamy, beige kernel. The nut tastes mild, sweet and somewhat like hazelnut, hence the common name, although the plant is unrelated to hazels. Nuts are sold in small quantities, mostly in Chile, either in the shell, roasted or ground, and as a nut oil used in cosmetics and some foods.

The tree is native to the temperate rainforests of southern Chile and adjacent parts of Argentina, where it grows in the understorey and at forest edges. The name gevuina is a Latinised form of the Mapuche word for the tree, and avellana is Spanish for hazelnut, referencing the flavour and appearance of the nut. In Mapuche the tree is known as nefuén, and the nuts were an important wild food for the people of the region before European settlement.

The Mapuche gathered gevuina nuts in autumn and early winter, and they were roasted over fire or boiled and eaten as a seasonal food, ground into flour and drunk as a fermented or non-fermented beverage. The tree was valued for its wood and used as a medicinal plant in local traditions, with leaves and bark used in infusions.

Spanish colonists, who called the nut avellana because it resembled the hazelnuts of Europe, adopted its use. The nuts were sold locally, though never on the scale of other crops, and the expansion of agriculture and forestry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reduced native forests where the tree grew.

In recent decades, interest has grown in the oil, which is rich in monounsaturated fats and contains compounds that absorb ultraviolet light, and has been studied for use in skincare and sunscreens. Chilean researchers have investigated cultivation and agronomic potential, although commercial orchards remain small. The tree has also been planted as an ornamental in mild climates such as the British Isles and the Pacific Northwest, where it can tolerate mild frost.

Traditionally, the nuts are eaten roasted or boiled, ground into flour, or used in cooking where hazelnuts might be employed, such as in sweets and breads. A pale oil is pressed from the kernels and used in cosmetics and, to a lesser extent, in cooking. In Chile the nuts are sold at rural markets in the season. The wood is used in carpentry and fuel, and leaf infusions have been used in folk medicine. Gevuina is also planted as an ornamental tree for its glossy foliage and showy flowers, and it provides forage for pollinators.

The kernels are a source of fat, mostly monounsaturated, along with protein and fibre. The oil includes unusual fatty acids that have attracted interest for skin care. Published nutritional and clinical studies on gevuina nuts are sparse, so health claims should be seen as speculative. As a traditional food they have been part of the diet of forest communities, eaten in modest amounts.