The Anacardiaceae include numerous genera, several of which are economically important, notably cashew (in the type genus Anacardium), mango, Chinese lacquer tree, yellow mombin, Peruvian pepper, poison ivy, poison oak, sumac, smoke tree, marula and cuachalalate.

[3] The cashew family is more abundant in warm or tropical regions with only a few species living in the temperate zones.

[5] Trees or shrubs, each has inconspicuous flowers and resinous or milky sap that may be highly poisonous, as in black poisonwood and sometimes foul-smelling.

[5] In 1759, Bernard de Jussieu arranged the plants in the royal garden of the Trianon at Versailles, according to his own scheme.

[8] Robert Brown described a subset of the Terebintaceae called Cassuvlæ or Anacardeæ in 1818, using the herbarium that was collected by Christen Smith during a fated expedition headed by James Hingston Tuckey to explore the River Congo.

[9] Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1824, used Robert Brown's name Cassuvlæ or Anacardeæ, wrote another description of the group, and filled it with the genera Anacardium, Semecarpus, Holigarna, Mangifera, Buchanania, Pistacia, Astronium, Comocladia, and Picramnia.

[10] John Lindley described the "essential character" of the Anacardiaceæ, the "Cashew Tribe" in 1831, adopting the order that was described by de Jussieu, but abandoning the name Terebintaceæ.

He includes the genera that were found in de Candolle's Anacardieæ and Sumachineæ: Anacardium, Holigarna, Mangifera, Rhus, and Mauria.

79 genera are accepted:[13] Members of this family produce cashew and pistachio nuts, and mango and marula fruits.

produce a viscous or adhesive fluid which turns black and is used as a varnish or for tanning and even as a mordant for red dyes.