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People in the Amazon River basin sometimes drink milk — even though they’ve never seen a cow or milked any other animal. In parts of the Amazon, there are trees that produce a milk-like sap. They’re aptly called ‘cow trees.’ A small cut in the bark releases a stream of thick, whitish sap. For a time, the sap was considered poisonous because of its bitter taste. Botanists found that diluting it with water and boiling it removes the bitter flavor and makes the drink safe to consume.
Each cow tree, as botanists call it, can yield up to 4 liters of sap in a single ‘milking,’ which closely resembles cow’s milk in chemical composition.
