A tropical shrub or small tree with hard, spiny seed pods that produces small round seeds, also called nicker.
From Portuguese 'bonduco,' which came from Sanskrit 'banduka' or a similar South Asian source. The word traveled along trade routes as European explorers encountered this plant in the tropics.
Bonduc seeds were actually used as dice and marbles by sailors and colonists because they're perfectly spherical and hard—they're one of the few natural objects that work as gambling implements!
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