(the beautiful bamboo background for this page is through the generosity of the Concepcion, Tarlac Homepage)
 

FRUIT TREES AND PLANTS  (Bungang Tanaman)

(Researched by  Armando Regala
from Julia Morton's book "Fruits from Warm Climates")

Abukadu (Avocado)
Scientific name:  Persia americana Mill.
 
The avocado, unflatteringly known in the past as alligator pear, midshipman's butter, vegetable butter, or sometimes as  butter pear, and called by Spanish-speaking people aguacate, cura, cupandra, or palta; in Portuguese, abacate; in  French, avocatier; is the only important edible fruit of the laurel family, Lauraceae. It is botanically classified in three groups: A), Persea americana Mill. var. americana (P. gratissima Gaertn.), West Indian Avocado; B) P. americana Mill. var. drymifolia Blake (P. drymifolia Schlecht. & Cham.), the Mexican Avocado; C) P. nubigena var. guatemalensis L. Wms., the Guatemalan Avocado.  The avocado tree may be erect, usually to 30 ft (9 m) but sometimes  to 60 ft (18 m) or more, with a trunk 12 to 24 in (30-60 cm) in diameter,  (greater in very
old trees) or it may be short and spreading with branches beginning close to the ground. Almost evergreen, being shed briefly in dry seasons at blooming time, the leaves are alternate, dark-green and glossy on the upper surface, whitish on the underside; variable in shape (lanceolate, elliptic, oval, ovate or obovate), 3 to 16 in (7.5-40 cm) long. Those of the Mexican race are strongly anise-scented. Small, pale-green or yellow-green flowers are borne profusely in racemes near the branch tips. They lack petals but have 2 whorls of 3 perianth lobes, more or less     pubescent, and 9 stamens with 2 basal orange nectar glands. The fruit, pear-shaped, often more or less necked, oval, or nearly round, may be 3 to 13 in (7.5-33 cm) long and up to 6 in (15 cm) wide. The skin may be yellow-green, deep-green or very dark-green, reddish-purple, or so dark a purple as to appear almost black, and is sometimes speckled with tiny yellow dots, it may be smooth or pebbled, glossy or dull, thin or leathery and up to 1/4 in (6 mm) thick, pliable or granular and brittle. In some fruits, immediately beneath the skin there is a thin layer of soft, bright-green flesh, but generally the flesh is entirely pale to rich-yellow, buttery and bland or nutlike in flavor. The single seed is oblate, round, conical or ovoid, 2 to 2 1\2 in (5-6.4 cm) long, hard and heavy, ivory in color but enclosed in two brown, thin, papery seedcoats often adhering to the flesh cavity, while the seed slips out readily. Some fruits are seedless because of lack of pollination or other factors.

The avocado may have originated in southern Mexico but was cultivated from the Rio Grande to central Peru long before the arrival of Europeans. Thereafter, it was carried not only to the West Indies (where it was first reported in Jamaica in 1696), but to nearly all parts of the tropical and subtropical world with suitable environmental conditions. It was taken to the Philippines near the end of the 16th Century; to the Dutch East Indies by 1750 and Mauritius in 1780; was first brought to Singapore between 1830 and 1840 but has never become common in Malaya. It reached India in1892 and is grown especially around Madras and Bangalore but has never become very popular because of the preference for sweet fruits. It was planted in Hawaii in 1825 and was common throughout the islands by 1910; it was introduced into Florida from Mexico by Dr. Henry Perrine in 1833 and into California, also from Mexico, in 1871.  Vegetative propagation began in 1890 and stimulated the importation of budwood of various types, primarily to extend the season of fruiting. Some came from Hawaii in 1904 (S. P. I. Nos. 19377-19380).

Many isolated avocado trees fail to fruit from lack of pollination. Commercial growers are careful to match Class A cultivars whose flowers will receive pollen in the morning with Class B cultivars that release pollen in the morning and every grower must be sure to include compatible pollinators in his grove. Bulletin 29 (1971) of the Ministry of Agriculture in Guatemala tabulates the flowering periods (varying from August to April) of 48 introduced and locally selected cultivars, and the hours of the day when each is receptive to or shedding pollen.  Normally, avocado seeds lose viability within a month. 'Lula' seeds can be stored up to 5 months if placed in non-perforated polyethylene bags and kept at 40ºF (4.4ºC), thus indicating that it may be possible to successfully store seeds of other cultivars ripening at different seasons for later simultaneous planting. Fresh seeds germinate in 4 to 6 weeks, and many people in metropolitan areas grow avocado trees as novelty house plants by piercing the seed partway through with toothpicks on both sides to hold it on the top of a tumbler with water just covering 1/2 in (1.25 cm) of the base. When roots and leaves are well formed (in 2 to 6 weeks), the plant is set in potting soil. Of course, it must be given adequate light and ventilation. In nurseries, seeds that have been in contact with the soil are disinfected with hot water.   Experiments with gibberellic acid and cutting of both ends of the seed with a view to achieving more uniform germination have not produced encouraging results. Seedlings will begin to bear in 4 or 5 years and the avocado tree will continue to bear for 50 years or more. Some bearing trees have been judged to be more than 100 years old.

In Australia, seeds planted in early fall germinate in 4 to 6 weeks; if planted later, they may remain dormant all winter and     germinate in early spring. Seedlings should be kept in partial shade and not overwatered. While many important selections have originated from seeds, vegetative propagation is essential to early fruiting and the perpetuation of desirable cultivars. However, seedlings are grown for rootstocks.  For many years, shield budding was commonly practiced in Florida, but this method requires considerable skill and experience and is not successful with all cultivars. Therefore, it was largely replaced by whip, side-, or cleft-grafting, all of which make a stronger union than budding.  In the past, seedlings were grafted when 18 to 36 in (45-90 cm) high. It is now considered far better to graft when 6 to 9 in (15-23 cm) high, making the graft 1 to 3 in (2.5-7.5 cm) above ground level. West Indian rootstocks are desirable for overcoming chlorosis in avocados in Israel.

Avocado cuttings are generally difficult to root. Cuttings of West Indian cultivars will generally root only if they are taken     from the tops or side shoots of young seed rings. But etiolated cuttings (new shoots) from gibberellin treated hardwood and semi hardwood cuttings of 'Pollock' as well as 'Lula' have been rooted with 50-60% success and, when treated with IBA, 66-83% success under mist in Trinidad. Cuttings of 'Fuchs-20' have rooted under mist with 40 to 50 or even 70% in Israel. Cuttings of 'Maoz' have rooted at the rate of 60% by a special technique developed in California. An Israeli selection, 'G.A. 13' has given 70 to 90% success in rooting cuttings under mist for the purpose of utilizing them as rootstocks in saline and high lime situations. Air-layering is sometimes done to obtain uniform material uninfluenced by rootstock, for research on specific problems. Degree of success depends on the cultivar (those of the Mexican race rooting most quickly), and air-layering is best done in spring and early summer.  At times, mature avocado groves are top worked to change from an unsatisfactory cultivar, or one declining in popularity, to a more profitable one, or an assortment of cultivars for different markets. In 1957, 2,700 ";obsolete"; avocado trees in Ventura, California, were being grafted (top-worked) to mainly 'Hass', some to 'Bacon' and 'Rincon'.  This procedure may involve thousands of trees in a given region. It is done in December and January in Florida.     Inasmuch as avocado roots are sensitive to transplanting, it is now considered advisable to raise planting material in plastic bags which can be slit and set in the field without disturbing the root system.

Anunas (Custard Apple)
Scientific name:  Annona reticulata
 
Both in tree and in fruit, the custard apple, Annona reticulata L., is generally rated as the mediocre or "ugly duckling" species among the prominent members of this genus. Its descriptive English name has been widely misapplied to other species and to the hybrid ATEMOYA, and it is sometimes erroneously termed "sugar apple", "sweetsop" and, by Spanish-speaking people,"anon" or "rinon", in India, "ramphal", all properly applied only to Annona squamosa. It has, itself, acquired relatively fewappropriate regional names.  It is generally called in the Philippines anunas and sarikaya; in India ramphal, nona or luvuni, in Malaya, nona kapri, or lonang; in Thailand, noi nong";; in Cambodia, mo bat or mean bat; in Laos khan tua lot; in South Vietnam, binh bat; North Vietnam, qua na.
The custard apple tree is not especially attractive. It is erect, with a rounded or spreading crown and trunk 10 to 14 in (25-35 cm) thick. Height ranges from 15 to 35 ft (4.5-10 m). The ill-smelling leaves are deciduous, alternate, oblong or arrow-lanceolate, 4 to 8 in (10-20 cm) long, 3/4 to 2 in (2 5 cm) wide, with conspicuous veins. Flowers, in drooping clusters, are fragrant, slender, with 3 outer fleshy, narrow petals 3/4 to 1 1/4 in (2 3 cm) long; light-green externally and pale-yellow with a dark-red or purple spot on the inside at the base. The flowers never fully open.

The compound fruit, 3 l/4 to 6 1/2 in (8-16 cm) in diameter, may be symmetrically heart-shaped, lopsided, or irregular; or nearly round, or oblate, with a deep or shallow depression at the base. The skin, thin but tough, may be yellow or brownish when ripe, with a pink, reddish or brownish-red blush, and faintly, moderately, or distinctly reticulated. There is a thick, cream-white layer of custardlike, somewhat granular, flesh beneath the skin surrounding the concolorous moderately juicy segments, in many of which there is a single, hard, dark-brown or black, glossy seed, oblong, smooth, less than 1/2 in (1.25 cm) long. Actual seed counts have been 55, 60 and 76. A pointed, fibrous, central core, attached to the thick stem, extends more than halfway through the fruit. The flavor is sweet and agreeable though without the distinct character of the cherimoya, sugar apple, or atemoya.

The custard apple is believed to be a native of the West Indies but it was carried in early times through Central America to
southern Mexico. It has long been cultivated and naturalized as far south as Peru and Brazil. It is commonly grown in the
Bahamas and occasionally in Bermuda and southern Florida. Apparently it was introduced into tropical Africa early in the 17th century and it is grown in South Africa as a dooryard fruit tree. In India the tree is cultivated, especially around Calcutta, and runs wild in many areas. It has become fairly common on the east coast of Malaya, and more or less throughout southeast Asia and the Philippines though nowhere particularly esteemed.  Eighty years ago it was reported as thoroughly naturalized in Guam. In Hawaii it is not well known.

Seed is the usual means of propagation. Nevertheless, the tree can be multiplied by inarching, or by budding or grafting onto its
own seedlings or onto soursop, sugar apple or pond apple rootstocks. Experiments in Mexico, utilizing cherimoya, llama,
soursop, custard apple, Annona sp. Af. lutescens and Rollinia jimenezii Schlecht. as rootstocks showed best results when
custard apple scions were side-grafted onto self-rootstock, soursop, or A. sp. Af. lutescens. Custard apple seedlings are
frequently used as rootstocks for the soursop, sugar apple and atemoya.  The tree is fast-growing and responds well to mulching, organic fertilizers and to frequent irrigation if there is dry weather during the growing period. The form of the tree may be improved by judicious pruning.


Atis  (Sugar Apple)
Scientific name: Annona squamosa
 
The most widely grown of all the species of Annona, the sugar apple, A. squamosa L., has acquired various regional names: anon (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama); anon de azucar, anon domestico, hanon, mocuyo (Colombia); anona blanca (Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic); anona de castilla (El Salvador); anona de Guatemala (Nicaragua); applebush (Grenadines); ata, fruta do conde, fruta de condessa, frutiera deconde, pinha, araticutitaia, or ati (Brazil); ates or atis (Philippines); atte (Gabon); chirimoya (Guatemala, Ecuador); cachiman (Argentina); cachiman cannelle (Haiti); kaneelappel (Surinam); pomme cannelle (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, French West Africa); rinon (Venezuela); saramulla, saramuya, ahate (Mexico); scopappel (Netherlands Antilles); sweetsop (Jamaica, Bahamas); ata, luna, meba, sharifa, sarifa, sitaphal, sita pandu, custard apple, scaly custard apple (India); bnah nona, nona, seri kaya (Malaya) manonah, noinah, pomme cannelle du Cap (Thailand); 
qu a na (Vietnam); mang cau ta (Cambodia); mak khbieb (Laos); fan-li-chi (China).  The sugar apple tree ranges from 10 to 20 ft (3-6 m) in height with open crown of irregular branches, and some-what zigzag twigs. Deciduous leaves, alternately arranged on short, hairy petioles, are lanceolate or oblong, blunt tipped, 2 to 6 in (5-15 cm) long and 3/4 to 2 in (2-5 cm) wide; dull-green on the upperside, pale, with a bloom, below; slightly hairy when young; aromatic when crushed. Along the branch tips, opposite the leaves, the fragrant flowers are borne singly or in groups of 2 to 4. They are oblong, 1 to 1 1/2 in (2.5-3.8 cm) long, never fully open; with 1 in (2.5 cm) long, drooping stalks, and 3 fleshy outer petals, yellow-green on the outside and pale-yellow inside with a purple or dark-red spot at the base. The 3 inner petals are merely tiny scales.  The compound fruit is nearly round, ovoid, or conical; 2 1/3 to 4 in (6-10 cm) long; its thick rind composed of knobby segments, pale-green, gray-green, bluish-green, or, in one form, dull, deep-pink externally (nearly always with a bloom); separating when the fruit is ripe and revealing the mass of conically segmented, creamy-white, glistening, delightfully fragrant, juicy, sweet, delicious flesh. Many of the segments enclose a single oblong-cylindric, black or dark-brown seed about 1/2 in (1.25 cm) long. There may be a total of 20 to 38, or perhaps more, seeds in the average fruit. Some trees, however, bear seedless fruits.

The original home of the sugar apple is unknown. It is commonly cultivated in tropical South America, not often in Central
America, very frequently in southern Mexico, the West Indies, Bahamas and Bermuda, and occasionally in southern Florida. In
Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Barbados, and in dry regions of North Queensland, Australia, it has escaped from cultivation and is found wild in pastures, forests and along roadsides. The Spaniards probably carried seeds from the New World to the Philippines and the Portuguese are assumed to have introduced the sugar apple to southern India before 1590. It was growing in Indonesia early in the 17th century and has been widely adopted in southern China, Queensland, Australia, Polynesia, Hawaii, tropical Africa, Egypt and the lowlands of Palestine. Cultivation is most extensive in India where the tree is also very common as an escape and the fruit exceedingly popular and abundant in markets. The sugar apple is one of the most important fruits in the interior of Brazil and is conspicuous in the markets of Bahia.

The 'Seedless Cuban' sugar apple was introduced into Florida in 1955, has produced scant crops of slightly malformed fruits with mere vestiges of undeveloped seeds. The flavor is less appealing than that of normal fruits but it is vegetatively propagated and distributed as a novelty.  Indian horticulturists have studied the diverse wild and cultivated sugar apples of that country and recognize ten different types: 'Red' (A. squamosa var. sangareddyiz)—red-tinted foliage and flowers, deep-pink rind, mostly non-reducing sugars, insipid, with small, blackish-pink seeds; poor quality; comes true from seed. 'Red-speckled'—having red spots on green rind. 'Crimson'—conspicuous red-toned foliage and flowers, deep-pink rind, pink flesh. 'Yellow'; 'White-stemmed'; 'Mammoth' (A. squamosa var. mammoth)—pale yellow petals, smooth, broad, thick, round rind segments that are light russet green; fruits lopsided, pulp soft, white, very sweet; comes true from seed. 'Balangar'—large, with green rind having rough, warty [tuberculate], fairly thick rind segments with creamy margins; sweet; high yielding. 'Kakarlapahad'—very high yielding. 'Washington'—acute tuberculate rind segments, orange-yellow margins; high yielding; late in season, 20 days after others. 'Barbados' and 'British Guiana'—having green rind, orange-yellow margins; high-yielding; late. Named cultivars growing at the Sabahia Experiment Station, Alexandria, Egypt, include: 'Beni Mazar'—nearly round, large, 5 1/4 to 6 1/2 oz (150-180 g); 56-60% flesh; 15 30 seeds. 'Abd El Razik'—light-green or reddish rind; nearly round, large, maximum 8 1/3 oz (236.3 g); 69.5% flesh; 14 seeds.

The sugar apple tree requires a tropical or near-tropical climate. It does not succeed in California because of the cool winters
though in Israel it has survived several degrees below freezing. Generally, it does best in dry areas and it has high drought
tolerance. However, in Ceylon it flourishes in the wet as well as the dry zones from sea level to 3,500 ft (1,066 m) elevation.
During the blooming season, drought interferes with pollination and it is, therefore, concluded that the sugar apple should have high atmospheric humidity but no rain when flowering. In severe droughts, the tree sheds its leaves and the fruit rind hardens and will split with the advent of rain.  The sugar apple is not particular as to soil and has performed well on sand, oolitic limestone and heavy loam with good drainage. Water-logging is intolerable. The tree is shallow-rooted and doesn't need deep soil. Irrigation water containing over 300 ppm chlorine has done the tree no harm. Sugar apple seeds have a relatively long life, having kept well for 3 to 4 years. They germinate better a week after removal from the fruit than when perfectly fresh. Germination may take 30 days or more but can be hastened by soaking for 3 days or by scarifying. The percentage of germination is said to be better in unsoaked seeds. While the tree is generally grown from seed, vegetative propagation is practiced where the crop is important and early fruiting is a distinct advantage. Seedlings may be budded or grafted when one-year old. In India, selected clones grafted on A. reticulata seedlings have flowered within 4 months and fruited in 8 months after planting out, compared with 2 to 4 years in seedlings. The grafted trees are vigorous, the fruits less seedy and more uniform in size. A. senegalensis is employed as a rootstock in Egypt. A. glabra is suitable but less hardy. The sugar apple itself ranks next after A. reticulata as a rootstock. In India, budding is best done in January, March and June. Results are poor if done inJuly, August, November or December unless the scions are defoliated and debudded in advance and cut only after the petioles have dehisced. Side-grafting can be done only from December to May, requires much skill and the rate of success has not exceeded 58.33%. Shield-budding gives 75% success and is the only commercially feasible method. Inarching is 100% successful. Cuttings, layers, airlayers have a low rate of success, and trees grown by these techniques have shallow root systems and cannot endure drought as well as seedlings do.

Seedlings 5 years old may yield 50 fruits per tree in late summer and fall. Older trees rarely exceed 100 fruits per tree unless
hand-pollinated. With age, the fruits become smaller and it is considered best to replace the trees after 10 to 20 years. The fruits will not ripen but just turn black and dry if picked before the white, yellowish or red tint appears between the rind segments, the first signs of separation. If allowed to ripen on the tree, the fruit falls apart.

The ripe sugar apple is usually broken open and the flesh segments enjoyed while the hard seeds are separated in the mouth and spat out. It is so luscious that it is well worth the trouble.  In Malaya, the flesh is pressed through a sieve to eliminate the seeds and is then added to ice cream or blended with milk to make a cool beverage. It is never cooked.  The seeds are acrid and poisonous. Bark, leaves and seeds contain the alkaloid, anonaine. Six other aporphine alkaloids have been isolated from the leaves and stems: corydine, roemerine, norcorydine, norisocarydine, isocorydine and glaucine. Aporphine, norlaureline and dienone may be present also. Powdered seeds, also pounded dried fruits serve as fish poison and insecticides in India. A paste of the seed powder has been applied to the head to kill lice but must be kept away from the eyes as it is highly irritant and can cause blindness. If applied to the uterus, it induces abortion. Heat-extracted oil from the seeds has been employed against agricultural pests. Studies have shown the ether extract of the seeds to have no residual toxicity after 2 days. High
concentrations are potent for 2 days and weaken steadily, all activity being lost after 8 days. In Mexico, the leaves are rubbed on floors and put in hen's nests to repel lice.

The seed kernels contain 14-49% of whitish or yellowish, non-drying oil with saponification index of 186.40. It has been proposed as a substitute for peanut oil in the manufacture of soap and can be detoxified by an alkali treatment and used for edible purposes. The leaves yield an excellent oil rich in terpenes and sesquiterpenes, mainly B-caryophyllene, which finds limited use in perfumes, giving a woody spicy accent. Fiber extracted from the bark has been employed for cordage. The tree serves as host for lac-excreting insects. Medicinal Uses: In India the crushed leaves are sniffed to overcome hysteria and fainting spells; they are also applied on ulcers and wounds and a leaf decoction is taken in cases of dysentery. Throughout tropical America, a decoction of the leaves alone or with those of other plants is imbibed either as an emmenagogue, febrifuge, tonic, cold remedy, digestive, or to clarify the urine. The leaf decoction is also employed in baths to alleviate rheumatic pain. The green fruit, very astringent, is employed against diarrhea in El Salvador. In India, the crushed ripe fruit, mixed with salt, is applied on tumors. The bark and roots are both highly astringent. The bark decoction is given as a tonic and to halt diarrhea. The root, because of its strong purgative action, is administered as a drastic treatment for dysentery and other ailments.

Balimbing (Carambola or Starfruit)
Scinetific name:  Averrhoa carambola
 
A curious, attractive fruit of the Oxalidaceae, the carambola, Averrhoa carambola L., has traveled sufficiently to have acquired a number of regional names in addition to the popular Spanish appelation which belies its Far Eastern origin. In the Philippines, it is usually called balimbing, belimbing, or belimbing manis ("sweet belimbing"), to distinguish it from the bilimbi or belimbing asam, A. bilimbi L. In Ceylon and India, the carambola has the alternate names of kamaranga, kamruk, or other variants of the native kamrakh. In Vietnam, it is called khe, khe ta, or similar terms; in Kampuchea, spu; in Laos, nak fuang, or the French name, carambolier; in Thailand, ma fueang. Malayans may refer to it as belimbing batu, belimbing besi, belimbing pessegi, belimbing sayur, belimbing saji, kambola, caramba, or as "star fruit". Australians use the descriptive term, five corner; in Guam, it is bilimbines; to the Chinese, it is yang-táo. Early English travelers called it Chinese, or Coromandel gooseberry, or cucumber tree. In Guyana, it is five 
fingers; in the Dominican Republic, it is vinagrillo; in Haiti, zibline; in some of the French  Antilles, cornichon; in El Salvador, pepino de la India; in Surinairiguro; in Brazil, camerunga or  caramboleiro, or limas de Cayena; in Mexico, carambolera or caramboler or árbol de pepino; in Trinidad, it may be called coolie tamarind. Venezuelans call it tamarindo chino or tamarindo dulce.

The carambola tree is slow-growing, short-trunked with a much-branched, bushy, broad, rounded crown and reaches 20 to 30 ft (6-9 m) in height. Its deciduous leaves, spirally arranged, are alternate, imparipinnate, 6 to 10 in(15-20 cm) long, with 5 to 11 nearly opposite leaflets, ovate or ovate-oblong, 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 in (3.8-9 cm) long; soft, medium-green, and smooth on the upper surface, finely hairy and whitish on the underside. The leaflets are sensitive to light and more or less inclined to fold together at night or when the tree is shaken or abruptly shocked. Small clusters of red-stalked, lilac, purple-streaked, downy flowers, about 1/4 in (6 mm) wide, are borne on the twigs in the axils of the leaves. The showy, oblong, longitudinally 5- to 6-angled fruits, 2 1/2 to 6 in (6.35-15 cm) long and up to 3 1/2 (9 cm) wide, have thin, waxy, orange-yellow skin and juicy, crisp, yellow flesh when fully ripe. Slices cut in cross-section have the form of a star. The fruit has a more or less pronounced oxalic acid odor and the flavor ranges from very sour to mildly sweetish. The so-called "sweet" types rarely contain more than 4% sugar. There may be up to 12 flat, thin, brown seeds 1/4 to 1/2 in (6-12.5 mm) long or none at all.

The carambola is believed to have originated in Ceylon and the Moluccas but it has been cultivated in southeast Asia and Malaysia for many centuries. It is commonly grown in the provinces of Fukien, Kuangtung and Kuangsi in southern China, in Taiwan and India. It is rather popular in the Philippines and Queensland, Australia, and moderately so in some of the South Pacific islands, particularly Tahiti, New Caledonia and Netherlands New Guinea, and in Guam and Hawaii.

The carambola is widely grown from seed though viability lasts only a few days. Only plump, fully developed seeds should be
planted. In damp peat moss, they will germinate in one week in summer, require 14 to 18 days in winter. The seedlings are
transplanted to containers of light sandy loam and held until time to set out. They are very tender and need good care. Seedlings are highly variable. Air-layering has been practiced and advocated. However, root formation is slow and later performance is not wholly satisfactory. Inarching is successful in India, shield-budding in the Philippines and the Forkert method in Java. Trees can be top-worked by bark-grafting, a popular technique in Java. For mass production, side-veneer grafting of mature, purplish wood, onto carambola seedlings gives best results for most workers. The rootstocks should be at least 1 year old and 3/8 to 5/7 in (1-1.5 cm) thick. One Florida farmer prefers cleft-grafting of green budwood and has 90% success. Grafted trees will fruit in 10 months from the time of planting out. Mature trees can be top-worked by bark-grafting.

The tree needs full sun. A spacing of 20 ft (6 m) has been advocated but if the trees are on good soil no less than 30 ft (9 m)
should be considered. At the Research Center in Homestead, trees 8 to 10 ft (2.4-3 m) high respond well to 1 lb (0.5 kg)
applications of N, P, K, Mg in the ratio of 6-6-6-3 given 3 to 4 times per year. If chlorosis occurs, it can be corrected by added iron, zinc and manganese. Some advisers recommend minor-element spraying 4 times during the year if the trees are on limestone soils. Moderate irrigation is highly desirable during dry seasons. Heavy rains during blooming season interfere with pollination and fruit production. Interplanting of different strains is usually necessary to provide cross-pollination and obtain the highest yields.

Balubad (Cashew Apple) or Kasoy
Scientific name:  Anacardium occidentale L.
 
The cashew is native to and northeast Brazil and, in the 16th Century, Portuguese traders introduced it to Mozambique and coastal India, but only as a soil retainer to stop erosion on the coasts. It flourished and ran wild and formed extensive forests in these locations and on nearby islands, and eventually it also became dispersed in East Africa and throughout the tropical lowlands of northern South America, Central America and the West Indies. It has been casually planted in all warm regions and a few fruiting specimens are found in experimental stations and private gardens in southern Florida. This pseudofruit (or "false fruit") is a by-product of the cashew nut industry.  The
cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale L., is called marañon in most Spanish-speaking countries, but merey in Venezuela; and caju or cajueiro in Portuguese. It is generally bushy, low-branched and spreading; may reach 35 ft (10.6 m) in height and width. Its leaves, mainly in terminal clusters, are oblong-oval or obovate, 4 to 8 in (10-20 cm) long and 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) wide, and leathery. Yellowish-pink, 5-petalled flowers are borne in 6 to 10-in (15-25 cm) terminal panicles of mixed male, female and bisexual. The true fruit of the tree is the cashew nut resembling a miniature boxing-glove; consisting of a double shell containing a caustic phenolic resin in honeycomb-like cells, enclosing the edible kidney-shaped kernel. An interesting feature of the cashew is that the nut develops first and when it is full-grown but not yet ripe, its peduncle or, more technically, receptacle, fills out, becomes plump, fleshy, pear-shaped or rhomboid-to-ovate, 2 to 4 1/2 in (5-11.25 cm) in length, with waxy, yellow, red, or red-and-yellow skin and spongy, fibrous, very juicy, astringent, acid to subacid, yellow pulp. Thus is formed the conspicuous, so-called cashew apple.

Medicinal Uses: Cashew apple juice, without removal of tannin, is prescribed as a remedy for sore throat and chronic
dysentery in Cuba and Brazil. Fresh or distilled, it is a potent diuretic and is said to possess sudorific properties. The brandy is
applied as a liniment to relieve the pain of rheumatism and neuralgia.

Biabas (Guava)
Scientific Name:  Psidium guajava L.
 
One of the most gregarious of fruit trees, the guava, Psidium guajava L., of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), is almost universally known by its common English name or its equivalent in other languages. In Spanish, the tree is guayabo, or guayavo, the fruit guayaba or guyava. The French call it goyave or goyavier; the Dutch, guyaba, goeajaaba; the Surinamese, guave or goejaba; and the Portuguese, goiaba or goaibeira. Hawaiians call it guava or kuawa. In Guam it is abas. In Malaya, it is generally known either as guava or jambu batu, but has also numerous dialectal names as it does in India, tropical Africa and the Philippines where it is called bayabas or biabas. Various tribal names–pichi, posh, enandi, etc.–are employed among the Indians of Mexico and Central and South America. A small tree to 33 ft (10 in) high, with spreading 
branches, the guava is easy to recognize because of its smooth, thin,  copper-colored bark that flakes off, showing the greenish layer beneath; and also because of the attractive, "bony" aspect of its trunk which may in time attain a diameter of 10 in (25 cm). Young twigs are quadrangular and downy. The leaves, aromatic when crushed, are evergreen, opposite, short-petioled, oval or oblong-elliptic, somewhat irregular in outline; 2 3/4 to 6 in (7-15 cm) long, I 'A to 2 in (3-5 cm) wide, leathery, with conspicuous parallel veins, and more or less downy on the underside. Faintly fragrant, the white flowers, borne singly or in small clusters in the leaf axils, are 1 in (2.5 cm) wide, with 4 or 5 white petals which are quickly shed, and a prominent tuft of perhaps 250 white stamens tipped with pale-yellow anthers.

The fruit, exuding a strong, sweet, musky odor when ripe, may be round, ovoid, or pear-shaped, 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) long, with 4 or 5 protruding floral remnants (sepals) at the apex; and thin, light-yellow skin, frequently blushed with pink. Next to the skin is a layer of somewhat granular flesh, 1/8 to 1/2 in (3-12.5 mm) thick, white, yellowish, light- or dark-pink, or near-red, juicy, acid, subacid, or sweet and flavorful. The central pulp, concolorous or slightly darker in tone, is juicy and normally filled with very hard, yellowish seeds, 1/8 in (3 min) long, though some rare types have soft, chewable seeds. Actual seed counts have ranged from 112 to 535 but some guavas are seedless or nearly so.  When immature and until a very short time before ripening, the fruit is green, hard, gummy within and very astringent.

The guava has been cultivated and distributed by man, by birds, and sundry 4-footed animals for so long that its place of origin is uncertain, but it is believed to be an area extending from southern Mexico into or through Central America. It is common
throughout all warm areas of tropical America and in the West Indies (since 1526), the Bahamas, Bermuda and southern Florida where it was reportedly introduced in 1847 and was common over more than half the State by 1886. Early Spanish and Portuguese colonizers were quick to carry it from the New World to the East Indies and Guam. It was soon adopted as a crop in Asia and in warm parts of Africa. Egyptians have grown it for a long time and it may have traveled from Egypt to Palestine. It is occasionally seen in Algeria and on the Mediterranean coast of France. In India, guava cultivation has been estimated at 125,327 acres (50,720 ha) yielding 27,319 tons annually.

Apparently it did not arrive in Hawaii until the early 1800's. Now it occurs throughout the Pacific islands. Generally, it is a home fruit tree or planted in small groves, except in India where it is a major commercial resource. A guava research and improvement program was launched by the government of Colombia in 1961. In 1968, it was estimated that there were about 10 million wild trees (around Santander, Boyacá, Antioquia, Palmira, Buga, Cali and Cartago) bearing, 88 lbs (40 kg) each per year and that only 10% of the fruit was being utilized in processing. Bogotà absorbs 40% of the production and preserved products are exported to markets in Venezuela and Panama.

Brazil's modern guava industry is based on seeds of an Australian selection grown in the botanical garden of the Sao Paulo
Railway Company at Tatu. Plantations were developed by Japanese farmers at Itaquera and this has become the leading
guava-producing area in Brazil. The guava is one of the leading fruits of Mexico where the annual crop from 36,447 acres (14,750 ha) of seedling trees totals 192,850 tons (175,500 MT). Only in recent years has there been a research program designed to evaluate and select superior types for vegetative propagation and large-scale cultivation.

In many parts of the world, the guava runs wild and forms extensive thickets–called "guayabales" in Spanish–and it overruns
pastures, fields and roadsides so vigorously in Hawaii, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Fiji, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba and southern Florida that it is classed as a noxious weed subject to eradication. Nevertheless, wild guavas have constituted the bulk of the commercial supply. In 1972, Hawaii processed, for domestic use and export, more than 2,500 tons (2,274 MT) of guavas, over 90% from wild trees. During the period of high demand in World War II, the wild guava crop in Cuba was said to be 10,000 tons (9,000 MT), and over 6,500 tons (6,000 MT) of guava products were exported.

Formerly, round and pear-shaped guavas were considered separate species–P. pomiferum L. and P. pyriferum L.–but they are now recognized as mere variations. Small, sour guavas predominate in the wild and are valued for processing. 'Redland', the first named cultivar in Florida, was developed at the University of Florida Agricultural Research and Education Center, Homestead, and described in 1941. Very large, with little odor, white-fleshed and with relatively few seeds, it was at first
considered promising but because of its excessively mild flavor, low ascorbic acid content, and susceptibility to algal spotting, it was abandoned in favor of better selections.  'Supreme' came next, of faint odor, thick, white flesh, relatively few, small seeds, high ascorbic acid content and ability to produce heavy crops over a period of 8 months from late fall to early spring.  'Red Indian', of strong odor, medium to large size, round but slightly flattened at the base and apex, yellow skin often with pink blush; with medium thick, red flesh of sweet flavor; numerous but small seeds; agreeable for eating fresh; fairly productive in fall and early winter. 'Ruby', with pungent odor, medium to large size; ovate; with thick, red flesh, sweet flavor, relatively few seeds. An excellent guava for eating fresh and for canning; fairly productive, mainly in fall and early winter.  'Blitch' (a seedling which originated in West Palm Beach and was planted at Homestead)–of strong odor, medium size, oval, with light-pink flesh, numerous, small seeds; tart, pleasant flavor; good for jelly.  'Patillo' (a seedling selection at DeLand propagated by a root sucker and from that by air-layer and planted at Homestead)–of very mild odor, medium size, ovate to obovate, with pink flesh, moderate number of small seeds; subacid, agreeable flavor; good for general cooking. (As grown in Hawaii it is highly acid and best used for processing). 'Miami Red' and 'Miami White', large, nearly odorless and thick-fleshed, were released by the University of Miami's Experimental Farm in 1954.

Guava seeds remain viable for many months. They often germinate in 2 to 3 weeks but may take as long as 8 weeks. Pretreatment with sulfuric acid, or boiling for 5 minutes, or soaking for 2 weeks, will hasten germination. Seedlings are transplanted when 2 to 30 in (5-75 cm) high and set out in the field when 1 or 2 years old. Inasmuch as guava trees cannot be depended upon to come true from seed, vegetative propagation is widely practiced. Pruned branches may serve as propagating material. Cuttings of half-ripened wood, 1/4 to 1/2 in (6-12.5 mm) thick will root with bottom heat or rooting-hormone treatment. Using both, 87% success has been achieved. Treated softwood cuttings will also root well in intermittent mist. In Trinidad, softwood, treated cuttings have been rooted in 18 days in coconut fiber dust or sand in shaded bins sprayed 2 or 3 times daily to keep humidity above 90%. Over 100,000 plants were produced by this method over a 2-year period. Under tropical conditions (high heat and high humidity), mature wood 3/4 to 1 in (2-2.5 cm) thick and 1 1/2 to 2 ft (45-60 cm) long, stuck into 1-ft (30-cm) high black plastic bags filled with soil, readily roots without chemical treatment.

Guava trees are frequently planted too close. Optimum distance between the trees should be at least 33 ft (10 m). Planting 16 1/2 ft (5 m) apart is possible if the trees are "hedged". The yield per tree will be less but the total yield per land area will be higher than at the wider spacing. Some recommend setting the trees 8 ft (2.4 m) apart in rows 24 ft (7.3 m) apart and removing every other tree as soon as there is overcrowding. Where mass production is not desired and space is limited, guava trees can be grown as cordons on a wire fence. Rows should always run north and south so that each tree receives the maximum sunlight. Exudates from the roots of guava trees tend to inhibit the growth of weeds over the root system. Guava trees grow rapidly and fruit in 2 to 4 years from seed. They live 30 to 40 years but productivity declines after the 15th year. Orchards may be rejuvenated by drastic pruning.


Caimito (Star Apple)
Scientific names: Chrysophyllum cainito L.; Achras caimito Ruiz & Pavon
 
One of the relatively minor fruits of the family Sapotaceae, the star apple or goldenleaf tree, Chrysophyllum cainito L. (syn. Achras caimito Ruiz & Pavon), has acquired a moderate assortment of regional names. In Spanish, it is usually caimito or estrella; in Portuguese, cainito or ajara; in French, generally, caimite or caimitier; in Haiti, pied caimite or caimitier a feuilles d'or; in the French West Indies, pomme surette, or buis; in the Virgin Islands, cainit; in Trinidad and Tobago, it is caimite or kaimit; in Barbados, star-plum; in Colombia, it may be caimo, caimo morado (purple variety) or caimito maduraverde (green variety); in Bolivia, caimitero, or murucuja; in Surinam, sterappel, apra or goudblad boom; in French Guiana, macoucou; in Belize, damsel; in El Salvador, guayabillo; in Argentina, aguay or olivoa. The Chinese in Singapore call it "chicle durian". The star apple tree is erect, 25 to 100 ft. (8-30 m)  tall, with
 a short trunk to 3 ft (1 m) thick, and a dense, broad crown, brown-hairy branchlets, and white, gummy latex. The alternate, nearly evergreen, leaves are elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 2 to 6 in (5-15 cm) long, slightly leathery, rich green and glossy on the upper surface, coated with silky, golden-brown pubescence beneath when mature, though silvery when young. Small, inconspicuous flowers, clustered in the leaf axils, are greenish-yellow, yellow, or purplish-white with tubular, 5-lobed corolla and 5 or 6 sepals. The fruit, round, oblate, ellipsoid or somewhat pear-shaped, 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) in diameter, may be red-purple, dark-purple, or pale-green. It feels in the hand like a rubber ball. The glossy, smooth, thin, leathery skin adheres tightly to the inner rind which, in purple fruits, is dark-purple and 1/4 to 1/2 in (6-12.5 mm) thick; in green fruits, white and 1/8 to 3/16 in.(3-5 mm) thick. Both have soft, white, milky, sweet pulp surrounding the 6 to 11 gelatinous, somewhat rubbery, seed cells in the center which, when cut through transversely, are seen to radiate from the central core like an asterisk or any-pointed star, giving the fruit its common English name. The fruit may have up to 10 flattened, nearly oval, pointed, hard seeds, 3/4 in (2 cm.) long, nearly 1/2 in (1.25 cm) wide, and up to 1/4 in (6 mm) thick, but usually several of the cells are not occupied and the best fruits have as few as 3 seeds. They appear black at first, with a light area on the ventral side, but they dry to a light-brown.

It is commonly stated that the star apple is indigenous to Central America but the eminent botanists Paul Standley and Louis
Williams have declared that it is not native to that area, no Nahuatl name has been found, and the tree may properly belong to
the West Indies. However, it is more or less naturalized at low and medium altitudes from southern Mexico to Panama, is
especially abundant on the Pacific side of Guatemala, and frequently cultivated as far south as northern Argentina and Peru. It
was recorded by Ciezo de Leon as growing in Peru during his travels between 1532 and 1550. It is common throughout most
of the Caribbean Islands and in Bermuda. In Haiti, the star apple was the favorite fruit of King Christophe and he held court
under the shade of a very large specimen at Milot. The United States Department of Agriculture received seeds from Jamaica in 1904 (S.P.I. #17093). The star apple is grown occasionally in southern Florida and in Hawaii where it was introduced before
1901. There are some trees in Samoa and in Malaya though they do not bear regularly. The tree is grown in southern Vietnam
and in Kampuchea for its fruits but more for its ornamental value in West Tropical Africa, Zanzibar, and the warmer parts of
India. It was introduced into Ceylon in 1802, reached the Philippines much later but has become very common there as a
roadside tree and the fruit is appreciated.

Apart from the two distinct color types, there is little evidence of such pronounced variation that growers would be stimulated
to make vigorous efforts to select and propagate superior clones. William Whitman of Miami observed a tree yielding heavy
crops of well-formed, high quality fruits in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from late January to the end of June. He brought budwood to
Florida in 1953. Grafted progeny and trees grown from air-layers have borne well here even prior to reaching 10 ft (3 m) in
height. This introduction, named the "Haitian Star Apple", is propagated commercially for dooryard culture. Seeds of the
Port-au-Prince tree have produced seedlings that have performed poorly in Florida.

The star apple tree is a tropical or near-tropical species ranging only up to 1,400 ft (425 m) elevation in Jamaica. It does well
only in the warmest locations of southern Florida and on the Florida Keys. Mature trees are seriously injured by temperatures
below 28º F (-2.22º C) and recover slowly. Young trees may be killed by even short exposure to 31º F (-0.56º C).  The tree is not particular as to soil, growing well in deep, rich earth, clayey loam, sand, or limestone, but it needs perfect drainage.

Star apple trees are most widely grown from seeds which retain viability for several months and germinate readily. The
seedlings bear in 5 to 10 years. Vegetative propagation hastens production and should be more commonly practiced. Cuttings
of mature wood root well. Air-layers can be produced in 4 to 7 months and bear early. Budded or grafted trees have been
known to fruit one year after being set in the ground. In India, the star apple is sometimes inarched on star apple seedlings.
Grafting on the related satinleaf tree (C. oliviforme L.) has had the effect of slowing and stunting the growth.  During the first 6 months, the young trees should be watered weekly. Later irrigation may be infrequent except during the flowering season when watering will increase fruit-set. Most star apple trees in tropical America and the West Indies are never fertilized but a complete, well-balanced fertilizer will greatly improve performance in limestone and other infertile soils.

Star apples must not be bitten into. The skin and rind (constituting approximately 33% of the total) are inedible. When opening
a star apple, one should not allow any of the bitter latex of the skin to contact the edible flesh. The ripe fruit, preferably chilled,
may be merely cut in half and the flesh spooned out, leaving the seed cells and core. A combination of the chopped flesh with
that of mango, citrus, pineapple, other fruits and coconut water is frozen and served as Jamaica Fruit Salad Ice. An attractive
way to serve the fruit is to cut around the middle completely through the rind and then, holding the fruit stem-end down, twisting the top gently back and forth. As this is done, the flesh will be free itself from the downward half of the rind, and the latter will pull away, taking with it the greater part of the core.


Calamunding (Calamondin) or Calamansi
Scientific name:  Citrus mitis Blanco
 
Prized for its ornamental value more widely than for its fruit, the calamondin was formerly identified as Citrus mitis Blanco (syn. C. microcarpa Bunge); more recently in Citrus circles, erroneously, as C. madurensis Lour.; now it has been given the hybrid name: X Citrofortunella mitis J. Ingram & H. E. Moore. Among alternate common names are: calamondin orange; Chinese, or China, orange; Panama orange; golden lime; scarlet lime; and, in the Philippines, kalamondin, kalamunding, kalamansi, calamansi, limonsito, or agridulce. Malayan names are limau kesturi ("musk lime") and limau chuit. In Thailand it is ma-nao-wan. The calamondin is believed native to China and thought to have been
taken in early times to Indonesia and the Philippines. It became the most important Citrus juice source in the Philippine Islands and is widely grown in India and throughout southern Asia and Malaysia. It is a common ornamental dooryard tree in Hawaii, the Bahamas, some islands of the West Indies, and parts of Central America. Dr. David Fairchild introduced it into Florida from Panama in 1899. It quickly became popular in Florida and Texas. The California climate is not as favorable but a variegated form ('Peters') is cultivated there.

The calamondin is as cold-hardy as the Satsuma orange and can be grown all along the Gulf Coast of the southern United States. It is moderately drought-tolerant.  Calamondin trees may be easily grown from seeds, which are polyembryonic with 3 to 5 embryos each. For commercial fruit production in the Philippines, the trees are budded onto calamondin seedlings. In Florida, propagation by cuttings rooted under constant mist is the more common commercial procedure for pot culture. Even leaf-cuttings will root readily.  Plants grown from cuttings fruit during the rooting period and will reach 18 to 24 in (45-60 cm) in height in 10 1/2 months. The flowers are self-fertile and require no cross-pollination. Transplanted into a large container and well cared for, a calamondin will grow at the rate of 1 ft (30 cm) per year; will produce an abundant crop of fruit at the age of 2 years and will continue to bear the year around. Potted plants for shipment can be stored in the dark for 2 weeks at 53.6º F (12º C) without loss of leaves or fruits in storage or in subsequent transit and marketing.  In orchard plantings, Philippine workers have established that a complete commercial fertilizer with a 1:1 nitrogen to potassium ratio gives the best growth. There are 2 applications: one prior to the onset of the rainy season and the second just before the cessation of rains. Adequate moisture is the principal factor in yield, size and quality of the fruit. Drought and dehydrating winds often lead to mesophyll collapse.

Calamondin halves or quarters may be served with iced tea, seafood and meats, to be squeezed for the acid juice. They were
commonly so used in Florida before limes became plentiful. Some people boil the sliced fruits with cranberries to make a tart
sauce. Calamondins are also preserved whole in sugar sirup, or made into sweet pickles, or marmalade. A superior marmalade
is made by using equal quantities of calamondins and kumquats. In Hawaii, a calamondin-papaya marmalade is popular. In
Malaya, the calamondin is an ingredient in chutney. Whole fruits, fried in coconut oil with various seasonings, are eaten with
curry. The preserved peel is added as flavoring to other fruits stewed or preserved.  The juice is primarily valued for making acid beverages. It is often employed like lime or lemon juice to make gelatin salads or desserts, custard pie or chiffon pie. In the Philippines, the extracted juice, with the addition of gum tragacanth as an emulsifier, is pasteurized and bottled commercially. This product must be stored at low temperature to keep well. Pectin is recovered from the peel as a by-product of juice production. The fruit juice is used in the Philippines to bleach ink stains from fabrics. It also serves as a body deodorant.  The fruits may be crushed with the saponaceous bark of Entada Phaseoloides Merr. for shampooing the hair, or the fruit juice applied to the scalp after shampooing. It eliminates itching and promotes hair growth. Rubbing calamondin juice on insect bites banishes the itching and irritation. It bleaches freckles and helps to clear up acne vulgaris and pruritus vulvae. It is taken orally as a cough remedy and antiphlogistic. Slightly diluted and drunk warm, it serves as a laxative. Combined with pepper, it is prescribed in Malaya to expel phlegm. The root enters into a treatment given at childbirth. The distilled oil of the leaves serves as a carminative with more potency than peppermint oil. The volatile oil content of the leaves is 0.90% to 1.06%.  The chemistry of the calamondin has received only moderate attention. Mustard found the ascorbic acid content of the whole fruit to be, 88.4-111.3 mg/100 g; of the juice, 30-31.5 mg; and of the peel, 130-173.9 mg.

Calumpit (Wampee)
Scientific name:  Clausena lansium Skeels

A minor member of the Rutaceae and distant relative of the citrus fruits, the wampee, Clausena lansium Skeels (syns. C.
wampi (Blanco), D. Oliver; C. punctata (Sonn.), Rehd. & E.H. Wils.; Cookia punctata Sonn.; Cookia wampi Blanco;
Quinaria lansium Lour.), has not traveled sufficiently to acquire many vernacular names and most are derived from the
Chinese huang-p'i-kuo, huang p'i ho, huang p'i kan, or huang-p'i-tzu. In Malaya, it is known as wampi, wampoi, or
wang-pei; in the Philippines, uampi, uampit, huampit, calumpit or galumpi; in Vietnam, hong bi, or hoang bi. In Thailand it is
som-ma-fai.
The tree is fairly fast-growing or rather slow, depending on its situation; attractive, reaching 20 ft (6 m), with long, upward-slanting, flexible branches, and gray-brown bark rough to the touch. Its evergreen, spirally-arranged, resinous leaves are 4 to 12 in (10-30 cm) long, pinnate, with 7 to 15 alternate, elliptic or elliptic-ovate leaflets 2 3/4 to 4 in (7-10 
cm) long, oblique at the base, wavy-margined and shallowly toothed; thin, minutely hairy on the veins above and with yellow, warty midrib prominent on the underside. The petiole also is warty and hairy. The sweet-scented, 4- to 5-parted flowers are whitish or yellowish-green, about 1/2 in (1.25 cm) wide, and borne in slender, hairy panicles 4 to 20 in (10-50 cm) long. 
The fruits, on 1/4 to 1/2 in (0.6-1.25 cm) stalks, hang in showy, loose clusters of several strands. The wampee may be round, or conical-oblong, up to 1 in (2.5 cm) long, with 5 faint, pale ridges extending a short distance down from the apex. The thin, pliable but tough rind is light brownish-yellow, minutely hairy and dotted with tiny, raised, brown oil glands. It is easily peeled and too resinous to be eaten. The flesh, faintly divided into 5 segments, is yellowish-white or colorless, grapelike, mucilaginous, juicy, pleasantly sweet, subacid, or sour. There may be 1 to 5 oblong, thickish seeds 1/2 to 5/8 in (1.25-1.6 cm) long, bright-green with one brown tip.

The wampee is native and commonly cultivated in southern China and the northern part of former French Indochina, especially
from North to Central Vietnam. It was growing in the Philippines before 1837 and was reintroduced in 1912. It is only
occasionally grown in India and Ceylon. Chinese people in southern Malaya, Singapore and elsewhere in the Malaysian
Archipelago grow the tree in home gardens. It is cultivated to a limited extent in Queensland, Australia and Hawaii. In 1908, it
was said to have been growing in a few Hawaiian gardens for many years but was not in general cultivation. It was brought to
Florida as an unidentified species in 1908. The United States Department of Agriculture received seed from Hong Kong in
1914 (P.I. 39176); from Canton in 1917 (P.I. 45328), and from Hawaii in 1922 (P.I. 55598). Dr. David Fairchild was
pleased with a wampee tree he grew at his 'Kampong' in Coconut Grove, Miami, and a small cottage near it was named the
'Wamperi'.

The wampee grows readily from seeds which germinate in a few days. It can also be grown from softwood cuttings and
air-layers, and can be veneer-grafted onto wampee seedlings. Dr. Swingle said it could be grafted onto grapefruit. However,
trials on various Citrus rootstocks in Florida have shown various degrees of incompatibility and few, if any, can be said to have
been really successful in the long run. The wampee is not a first-class fruit and the tree is of only casual interest, even as an
ornamental, except in Asia.

Chico (Sapodilla, ciku)
Local/Malay Name : Ciku/Sapodilla
Scientific Name : Achras sapota Linn.
 
There is great variation in the size and form of ciku trees. Under favourable conditions, a seedling tree may grow to a height of 17 - 25m but under sub-optimal conditions it may be no larger than a large shrub. Fruits are produced at frequent intervals throughout the year.  The fruits are round or oval, about 5 - 10cm long and weigh 100 - 170g. Mature fruits have a dull pale to rusty brown thin skin. 
When ripe the flesh is yellowish to pinkish brown, soft, sweet and delicious. Unripe fruits are hard and
unpleasantly astringent. Each fruit has 2- 3 seeds about 1.5 - 2.0cm long which are hard, black, shining, obovate and somewhat flattened and are easily separated from the flesh.  A native of tropical America it's well spread throughout the tropics and widely grown in parts of India and Africa, West Indies, Philippines, Malaysia, Tropical America and Southern Florida in the US.
 
Among numerous vernacular names, some of the most common are: baramasi (Bengal and Bihar, India); buah chiku (Malaya); chicle (Mexico); chico (Philippines, Guatemala, Mexico); chicozapote (Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela); chikoo (India); chiku (Malaya, India); dilly (Bahamas; British West Indies); korob (Costa Rica); mespil (Virgin Islands); mispel, mispu (Netherlands Antilles, Surinam); muy (Guatemala); muyozapot (El Salvador); naseberry (Jamaica; British West Indies); neeseberry (British West Indies; nispero (Puerto Rico, Central America, Venezuela); nispero quitense (Ecuador); sapodilla plum (India); sapota (India); sapotí (Brazil); sapotille (French West Indies); tree potato (India); Ya (Guatemala;  Yucatan); zapota (Venezuela); zapote (Cuba); zapote chico (Mexico; 
Guatemala); zapote morado (Belize); zapotillo (Mexico).  The chico is a fairly slow-growing, long-lived tree, upright and elegant, distinctly pyramidal when young; to 60 ft (18 m) high in the open but reaching 100 ft (30 m) when crowded in a forest. It is strong and wind-resistant, rich in white, gummy latex. Its leaves are highly ornamental, evergreen, glossy, alternate, spirally clustered at the tips of the forked twigs; elliptic, pointed at both ends, firm, 3 to 4 1/2 in (7.5-11.25 cm) long and 1 to 1 1/2 in (2.5-4 cm) wide. Flowers are small and bell-like, with 3 brown-hairy outer sepals and 3 inner sepals enclosing the pale-green corolla and 6 stamens. They are borne on slender stalks at the leaf bases. The fruit may be nearly round, oblate, oval, ellipsoidal, or conical; varies from 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) in width. When immature it is hard, gummy and very astringent. Though smooth-skinned it is coated with a sandy brown scurf until fully ripe. The flesh ranges in color from yellowish to light- or dark-brown or sometimes reddish-brown; may be coarse and somewhat grainy or smooth; becomes soft and very juicy, with a sweet flavor resembling that of a pear. Some fruits are seedless, but normally there may be from 3 to 12 seeds which are easily removed as they are loosely held in a whorl of slots in the center of the fruit. They are brown or black, with one white margin; hard, glossy; long-oval, flat, with usually a distinct curved hook on one margin; and about 1/4 in (2 cm) long.


Dalanghita (Mandarin Orange)
Scientific name:  Citrus reticulata
 
Mandarin is a group name for a class of oranges with thin, loose peel, which have been dubbed "kid-glove" oranges. These are treated as members of a distinct species, Citrus reticulata Blanco. The name "tangerine" could be applied as an alternate name to the whole group, but, in the trade, is usually confined to the types with red-orange skin. In the Philippines all mandarin oranges are called dalangh (from the Spanish naranjita) or dalandan. Spanish-speaking people in the American tropics call them mandarina.  The mandarin tree may be much smaller than that of the sweet orange or equal in size, depending on variety. With great age, some may reach a height of 25 ft (7.5 m) with a greater spread. The tree is usually thorny, with slender twigs, broad-or slender-lanceolate leaves 
having minute, rounded teeth, and narrowly-winged petioles. The flowers are borne singly or a few together in the leaf axils. The fruit is oblate, the peel bright-orange or red-orange when ripe, loose, separating easily from the segments. Seeds are small, pointed at one end, green inside.

The mandarin orange is considered a native of south-eastern Asia and the Philippines. It is most abundantly grown in Japan, southern China, India, and the East Indies, and is esteemed for home consumption in Australia. It gravitated to the western world by small steps taken by individuals interested in certain cultivars. Therefore, the history of its spread can be roughly traced in the chronology of separate introductions. Two varieties from Canton were taken to England in 1805. They were adopted into cultivation in the Mediterranean area and, by 1850, were well established in Italy. Sometime between 1840 and 1850, the 'Willow-leaf' or 'China Mandarin' was imported by the Italian Consul and planted at the Consulate in New Orleans. It was carried from there to Florida and later reached California. The 'Owari' Satsuma arrived from Japan, first in 1876 and next in 1878, and nearly a million budded trees from 1908 to 1911 for planting in the Gulf States. Six fruits of the 'King' mandarin were sent from Saigon in 1882 to a Dr. Magee at Riverside, California. The latter sent 2 seedlings to Winter Park, Florida. Seeds of the 'Oneco' mandarin were obtained from India by the nurseryman, P.W. Reasoner, in 1888. In 1892 or 1893, 2 fruits of 'Ponkan' were sent from China to J.C. Barrington of McMeskin, Florida, and seedlings from there were distributed and led to commercial propagation.  Mandarin oranges are much more cold-hardy than the sweet orange, and the tree is more tolerant of drought. The fruits are  tender and readily damaged by cold.

Mandarin essential oil and Petitgrain oil and tangerine oil, and their various tinctures and essences, are valued in perfume-manufacturing, particularly in the formulation of floral compounds and colognes. They are produced mostly in Italy, Sicily and Algiers.

Dalayap (Mexican lime)
Scientific name:  Citrus aurantifolia Swingle

Of the two acid, or sour, limes in world trade, the one longest known and most widely cultivated is the Mexican, West Indian,
or Key lime, Citrus aurantifolia Swingle (syns. C. acida Roxb., C. lima Lunan; C. medica var. ácida Brandis; and Limonia
aurantifolia Christm.). It is often referred to merely as "lime". In Spanish it is, lima ácida, lima chica, lima boba, limón chiquito, limón criollo, limón sutil, limón corriente, or limón agria. In French, it is limette or limettier acide; in German, limett; Italian, limetta; in Dutch, lemmetje or limmetje. In East Africa, it is ndimu; in the Philippines, dalayap or dayap; in Malaya, limau asam; in India, nimbu, limbu, nebu, lebu or limun. In Papiamento in the Netherlands Antilles it is lamoentsji or lamunchi, in Brazil, limao galego, or lintao miudo. In Egypt and the Sudan it is called limûn baladi, or baladi, in Morocco, doc.

The Mexican lime tree is exceedingly vigorous; may be shrubby or range from 6 1/2 to 13 ft (2-4 m) high, with many slender,
spreading branches, and usually has numerous, very sharp, axillary spines to 3/8 in (1 cm) long. The evergreen, alternate leaves
are pleasantly aromatic, densely set; elliptic- or oblong-ovate, rounded at the base, 2 to 3 in (5-7.5 cm) long, leathery; light
purplish when young, dull dark-green above, paler beneath, when mature; with minute, rounded teeth and narrowly-winged
petioles. Faintly fragrant or scentless, the axillary flowers, to 2 in (5 cm) across are solitary or 2 to 7 in a raceme, and have 4 to 6 oblong, spreading petals, white but purple-tinged when fresh, and 20-25 bundled white stamens with yellow anthers. The fruit, borne singly or in 2's or 3's (or sometimes large clusters), at the twig tips, is round, obovate, or slightly elliptical, sometimes with a slight nipple at the apex; the base rounded or faintly necked; 1 to 2 in (2.5-5 cm) in diameter; peel is green and glossy when immature, pale-yellow when ripe; somewhat rough to very smooth, 1/16 to 1/8 in (1.5-3 mm) thick; the pulp is greenish-yellow in 6 to 15 segments which do not readily separate; aromatic, juicy, very acid and flavorful, with few or many small seeds, green inside.

The Mexican lime is native to the Indo-Malayan region. It was unknown in Europe before the Crusades and it is assumed to
have been carried to North Africa and the Near East by Arabs and taken by Crusaders from Palestine to Mediterranean
Europe. In the mid-13th Century, it was cultivated and well-known in Italy and probably also in France. It was undoubtedly
introduced into the Caribbean islands and Mexico by the Spaniards, for it was reportedly commonly grown in Haiti in 1520. It
readily became naturalized in the West Indies and Mexico, There is no known record of its arrival in Florida. Dr. Henry Perrine planted limes from Yucatan on Indian Key and possibly elsewhere. In 1839, cultivation of limes in southern Florida was
reported to be "increasing". The lime became a common dooryard fruit and by 1883 was being grown commercially on a small
scale in Orange and Lake Counties. When pineapple culture was abandoned on the Florida Keys, because of soil depletion and the 1906 hurricane, people began planting limes as a substitute crop for the Keys and the islands off Ft. Myers on the west
coast. The fruits were pickled in saltwater and shipped to Boston where they were a popular snack for school children. The
little industry flourished especially between 1913 and 1923, but was demolished by the infamous hurricane of 1926. Thereafter, the lime was once again mainly a casual dooryard resource on the Keys and the southern part of the Florida mainland.

In 1953, George D. Fleming, Jr., proprietor of Key Lime Associates, at Rock Harbor, on Key Largo, was the chief producer
of limes. Though he had sold several of his groves, he was developing a new one as part of a "vacation cottage colony". Production of Mexican limes for juice has been the major industry on the small Caribbean island of Dominica for generations.

The Mexican lime grows wild in the warm valleys of the Himalayas and is cultivated not only in the lowlands but up to an
elevation of 4,000 ft (1,200 m). It was first planted on the South Pacific island of Niue in 1930. A small commercial industry has been expanding since 1966. Some of the fruit is sold fresh but most of the crop is processed for juice and oil by the Niue
Development Board Factory. These products are shipped to New Zealand, as are a good part of the peels for the manufacture of marmalade and jam. Production was crippled by a hurricane in 1979. This storm inspired a search for rootstocks that could
be expected to withstand strong winds.

There are few varieties of the Mexican lime, except for several spineless selections, inasmuch as there is no great variation in the wild or under cultivation. Some old named cultivars may not be recognized today.  'Everglade' (Philippine Islands #2182')–a seedling of a Mexican lime pollinated by flowers of a grapefruit or pummelo, but the fruits show no grapefruit or pummelo characteristics. Introduced into Trinidad in 1922. Planted in the Citrus Experiment Station collection at Riverside, California, it showed little or no distinguishing features. It is limelike, elliptical, with fairly large nipple at apex; 1 1/2 to 2 in (4-5 cm) wide, 1 3/4 to 2 1/8 in (4.5-5.4 cm) high; peel light-yellow when ripe, medium-smooth, the largest oil glands slightly sunken; thin, about 1/16 in (1.5 m); pulp light-greenish, in 8 to 10 segments with tender walls; aromatic, very juicy, of excellent quality and texture; the flavor sprightly acid; seeds 2 to 10, averaging about 5. The fruits are borne in large clusters because all the flowers are perfect. Tree is highly susceptible to withertip.

The Mexican lime is usually propagated by seed because most seeds are polyembryonic and reproduce faithfully to the parent.
In some areas, root sprouts from mature trees are taken up and transplanted into groves. Sprouting may be encouraged by
digging around the parent tree to sever the roots wholly or partly. Cuttings of mature wood may also serve for propagation but
usually do not develop strong root systems. Selected clones have been budded onto rough lemon or sour orange. The latter is
said to provide more resistance to hurricanes. Pummelo has been used in Hawaii but doesn't make a perfect union. In
Indonesia, this lime has always been air-layered. In the 1940's, air-layering became popular in Florida. It was adopted in India
with 100% success, using indole butyric acid to aid root development of the 'Kagzi' lime.  Seedlings will begin to fruit in 3 to 6 years and reach full production in 8 to 10 years. The fruits ripen and fall 5 to 6 months after flowering. Trees grown from air layers or cuttings tend to fruit the first year and then cease fruiting until they have attained some growth. If the trees have been correctly pruned when young, there is no further need for pruning except to remove deadwood and water-sprouts, or for the purpose of thinning the fruits to increase size.

Duat (Jambolan, Java plum)
Scientific name:  Syzygium cumini Skeels
 
This member of the Myrtaceae is of wider interest for its medicinal applications than for its edible fruit. Botanically it is Syzygium cumini Skeels (syns. S. jambolanum DC., Eugenia cumini Druce, E. jambolana Lam., E. djouat Perr., Myrtus cumini L., 
Calyptranthes jambolana Willd.). Among its many colloquial names are Java plum, Portuguese plum, Malabar plum, black plum, purple plum, and, in Jamaica, damson plum; also Indian blackberry. In India and Malaya it is variously known as jaman, jambu, jambul, jambool, jambhool, jamelong, jamelongue, jamblang, jiwat, salam, or koriang. In Thailand, it is wa, or ma-ha; in Laos, va; Cambodia, pring bai or pring das krebey; in Vietnam, voi rung; in the Philippines, duat, duhat, lomboy, lunaboy or other dialectal appelations; in Java, djoowet, or doowet. In Venezuela, local names are pésjua extranjera or guayabo pésjua; in Surinam, koeli, jamoen, or druif (Dutch for "grape"); in Brazil, jambuláo, jaláo, jameláo or jambol.

The jambolan is fast-growing, reaching full size in 40 years. It ranges up to 100 ft (30 m) in India and Oceania; up to 40 or 50 ft (12-15 m) in Florida; and it may attain a spread of 36 ft (11 m) and a trunk diameter of 2 or 3 ft (0.6-0.9 m). It usually forks into multiple trunks a short distance from the ground. The bark on the lower part of the tree is rough, cracked, flaking and
discolored; further up it is smooth and light-gray. The turpentine-scented evergreen leaves are opposite, 2 to 10 in (5-25 cm) long, 1 to 4 in (2.5-10 cm) wide; oblong-oval or elliptic, blunt or tapering to a point at the apex; pinkish when young; when mature, leathery, glossy, dark-green above, lighter beneath, with conspicuous, yellowish midrib. The fragrant flowers, in 1-to 4-in (2.5-10 cm) clusters, are 1/2 in (1.25 cm) wide, 1 in (2.5 cm) or more in length; have a funnel-shaped calyx and 4 to 5 united petals, white at first, then rose-pink, quickly shed leaving only the numerous stamens.

The fruit, in clusters of just a few or 10 to 40, is round or oblong, often curved; 1/2 to 2 in (1.25-5 m) long, and usually turns from green to light-magenta, then dark-purple or nearly black as it ripens. A white-fruited form has been reported in Indonesia. The skin is thin, smooth, glossy, and adherent. The pulp is purple or white, very juicy, and normally encloses a single, oblong, green or brown seed, up to 1 1/2 in (4 cm) in length, though some fruits have 2 to 5 seeds tightly compressed within a leathery coat, and some are seedless. The fruit is usually astringent, sometimes unpalatably so, and the flavor varies from acid to fairly sweet.

The jambolan is native in India, Burma, Ceylon and the Andaman Islands. It was long ago introduced into and became naturalized in Malaya. In southern Asia, the tree is venerated by Buddhists, and it is commonly planted near Hindu temples because it is considered sacred to Krishna. The leaves and fruits are employed in worshipping the elephant-headed god, Ganesha or Vinaijaka, the personification of "Pravana" or "Om", the apex of Hindu religion and philosophy. The tree is thought to be of prehistoric introduction into the Philippines where it is widely planted and naturalized, as it is in Java and elsewhere in the East Indies, and in Queensland and New South Wales, also on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba and Mombasa and adjacent coast of Kenya. In Ghana, it is found only in gardens. Introduced into Israel perhaps about 1940, it grows
vigorously there but bears scantily, the fruit is considered valueless but the tree is valued as an ornamental and for forestry in
humid zones. It is grown to some extent in Algiers.

By 1870, it had become established in Hawaii and, because of seed dispersal by mynah birds, it occurs in a semiwild state on all the Hawaiian islands in moist areas below 2,000 ft (600 in). There are vigorous efforts to exterminate it with herbicides because it shades out desirable forage plants. It is planted in most of the inhabited valleys in the Marquesas. It was in cultivation in Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the French Islands of the Lesser Antilles and Trinidad in the early 20th Century; was introduced into Puerto Rico in 1920; but still has remained little-known in the Caribbean region. At the Lancetilla Experimental Garden at Tela, Honduras, it grows and fruits well. It is seldom planted elsewhere in tropical America but is occasionally seen in Guatemala, Belize, Surinam, Venezuela and Brazil.

The Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture received jambolan seeds from the Philippines in
1911, from Java in 1912, from Zanzibar and again from the Philippines in 1920. The tree flourishes in California, especially in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, though the climate is not congenial for production or ripening of fruit. In southern Florida, the tree was rather commonly planted in the past. Here, as in Hawaii, fruiting is heavy, only a small amount of the crop has been utilized in home preserving. The jambolan has lost popularity, as it has in Malaya where it used to be frequently grown in gardens. Heavy crops litter streets, sidewalks and lawns, attracting insects, rapidly fermenting and creating a foul atmosphere. People are eager to have the trees cut down. Where conditions favor spontaneous growth, the seedlings become a nuisance, as well.

The jambolan tree grows well from sea-level to 6,000 ft (1,800 m) but, above 2,000 ft (600 m) it does not fruit but can be grown for its timber. It develops most luxuriantly in regions of heavy rainfall, as much as 400 in (1,000 cm) annually. It prospers on river banks and has been known to withstand prolonged flooding. Yet it is tolerant of drought after it has made some growth. Dry weather is desirable during the flowering and fruiting periods. It is sensitive to frost when young but mature trees have been undamaged by brief below-freezing temperatures in southern Florida.

Jambolan seeds lose viability quickly. They are the most common means of dissemination, are sown during the rainy season in
India, and germinate in approximately 2 weeks. Semi-hardwood cuttings, treated with growth-promoting hormones have given 20% success and have grown well. Budding onto seedlings of the same species has also been successful. Veneer-grafting of scions from the spring flush has yielded 31% survivors. The modified Forkert method of budding may be more feasible. When a small-fruited, seedless variety in the Philippines was budded onto a seeded stock, the scion produced large fruits, some with seeds and some without. Approach-grafting and inarching are also practiced in India. Air-layers treated with 500 ppm indolebutyric acid have rooted well in the spring (60% of them) but have died in containers in the summer.

Seedlings grow slowly the first year, rapidly thereafter, and may reach 12 ft (3.65 m) in 2 years, and begin bearing in 8 to 10 years. Grafted trees bear in 4 to 7 years. No particular cultural attention seems to be required, apart from frost protection when young and control measures for insect infestations. In India, organic fertilizer is applied after harvest but withheld in advance of flowering and fruiting to assure a good crop. If a tree does not bear heavily, it may be girdled or root-pruned to slow down vegetative growth.

The tree is grown as shade for coffee in India. It is wind-resistant and sometimes is closely planted in rows as a windbreak. If
topped regularly, such plantings form a dense, massive hedge. Trees are set 20 ft (6 m) apart in a windbreak; 40 ft (12 m) apart along roadsides and avenues.  The fruit is in season in the Marquesas in April; in the Philippines, from mid-May to mid-June. In Hawaii, the crop ripens in late summer and fall. Flowering occurs in Java in July and August and the fruits ripen in September and October. In Ceylon, the tree blooms from May to August and the fruit is harvested in November and December. The main fruiting season in India and southern Florida (where the tree blooms principally in February and March) extends through late May, June and July. Small second crops from late blooms have been observed in October. Individual trees may habitually bear later than others. In India, the fruits are harvested by hand as they ripen and this requires several pickings over the season. Indian horticulturists have reported a crop of 700 fruits from a 5-year-old tree. The production of a large tree may be overwhelming to the average homeowner.

Jambolans of good size and quality, having a sweet or subacid flavor and a minimum of astringency, are eaten raw and may be
made into tarts, sauces and jam. Astringent fruits are improved in palatability by soaking them in salt water or pricking them,
rubbing them with a little salt, and letting them stand for an hour. All but decidedly inferior fruits have been utilized for juice which is much like grape juice. When extracting juice from cooked jambolans, it is recommended that it be allowed to drain out without squeezing the fruit and it will thus be less astringent. The white-fleshed jambolan has adequate pectin and makes a very stiff jelly unless cooking is brief. The more common purple-fleshed yields richly colored jelly but is deficient in pectin and requires the addition of a commercial jelling agent or must be combined with pectinrich fruits such as unripe or sour guavas, or ketembillas.

Good quality jambolan juice is excellent for sherbet, sirup and "squash". In India, the latter is a bottled drink prepared by cooking the crushed fruits, pressing out the juice, combining it with sugar and water and adding citric acid and sodium benzoate as a preservative.

Durian (Durian)
Scientific name:  Durio zibethinus L.
Family:  Bombacaceae
 
The family Bombacaceae is best known for showy flowers and woody or thin-shelled pods filled with small seeds and silky or cottonlike fiber. The durian, Durio zibethinus L., is one member that differs radically in having large seeds surrounded by fleshy arils. Apart from variants of the word "durian" in native dialects, there are few other vernacular names, though the notorious odor has given rise to the unflattering terms, "civet cat tree", and "civet fruit" in India and "stinkvrucht " in Dutch. Nevertheless the durian is the most important native fruit of southeastern Asia and neighboring islands. The durian tree, reaching 90 to 130 ft (27-40 m) in height in tropical forests, is usually erect with short, straight, rough, peeling trunk to 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter, and irregular dense or open crown of rough branches, and thin branchlets 
coated with coppery or gray scales when young. The evergreen, alternate leaves are oblong-lance-olate, or elliptic-obovate, rounded at the base, abruptly pointed at the apex; leathery, dark-green and glossy above, silvery or pale-yellow, and densely covered with gray or reddish-brown, hairy scales on the underside; 2 1/2 to 10 in (6.25-25 cm) long, 1 to 3 1/2 in (2.5-9 cm) wide. Malodorous, whitish to golden-brown, 3-petalled flowers, 2 to 3 in (5-7.5 cm) wide, with 5-lobed, bell-shaped calyx, are borne in pendant clusters of 3 to 30 directly from the old, thick branches or trunk.

The fruits are ovoid or ovoid-oblong to nearly round, 6 to 12 in (15-30 cm) long, 5 to 6 in (12.5-15 cm) wide, and up to 18 lbs (8 kg) in weight. The yellow or yellowish-green rind is thick, tough, semi-woody, and densely set with stout, sharply pointed spines, 3- to 7-sided at the base. Handling without gloves can be painful. Inside there are 5 compartments containing the creamy-white, yellowish, pinkish or orange-colored flesh and 1 to 7 chestnut-like seeds, 3/4 to 2 1/4 in (2-6 cm) long with glossy, red-brown seedcoat. In the best fruits, most seeds are abortive. There are some odorless cultivars but the flesh of the common durian has a powerful odor which reminded the plant explorer, Otis W. Barrett, of combined cheese, decayed onion and turpentine, or "garlic, Limburger cheese and some spicy sort of resin" but he said that after eating a bit of the pulp "the odor is scarcely noticed." The nature of the flesh is more complex-in the words of Alfred Russel Wallace (much-quoted), it is "a rich
custard highly flavored with almonds . . . but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream cheese, onion-sauce,
sherry wine and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses,
but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, nor sweet, nor juicy; yet it wants none of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect.
It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop." (The Treasury of
Botany, Vol. 1, p. 435). Barrett described the flavor as "triplex in effect, first a strong aromatic taste, followed by a delicious
sweet flavor, then a strange resinous or balsam-like taste of exquisite but persistent savor." An American chemist working at the U.S. Rubber Plantations in Sumatra in modem times, was at first reluctant to try eating durian, was finally persuaded and
became enthusiastic, declaring it to be "absolutely delicious", something like "a concoction of ice cream, onions, spices, and
bananas, all mixed together."

The durian is believed to be native to Borneo and Sumatra. It is found wild or semi-wild in South Tenasserim, Lower Burma,
and around villages in peninsular Malaya, and is commonly cultivated along roads or in orchards from southeastern India and
Ceylon to New Guinea. Four hundred years ago, there was a lively trade in durians between Lower Burma to Upper Burma
where they were prized in the Royal Palace. Thailand and South Vietnam are important producers of durians. The Association
of Durian Growers and Sellers was formed in 1959 to standardize quality and marketing practices. The durian is grown to a
limited extent in the southern Philippines, particularly in the Provinces of Mindanao and Sulu. The tree grows splendidly but
generally produces few fruits in the Visayas Islands and on the island of Luzon. There are many bearing trees in Zanzibar, a few
in Pemba and Hawaii. The durian is not included in the latest Flora of Guam (1970) which covers both indigenous and exotic
species. It has been introduced into New Guinea, Tahiti, and Ponape.

Durian seeds lose viability quickly, especially if exposed even briefly to sunlight. Even in cool storage they can be kept only 7
days. Viability can be maintained for as long as 32 days if the seeds are surface-sterilized and placed in air-tight containers and
held at 68º F (20º C).  They have been successfully shipped to tropical America packed in a barely moist mixture of coconut husk fiber and charcoal.  Ideally, they should be planted fresh, flat-side down, and they will then germinate in 3 to 8 days. Seeds washed, dried for 1 or 2 days and planted have shown 77-80% germination. It is reported that, in some countries, seedling durian trees have borne fruit at 5 years of age. In India, generally, they come into bearing 9 to 12 years after planting, but in South India they will not produce fruit until they are 13 to 21 years old. In Malaya, seedlings will bloom in 7 years; grafted trees in 4 years or earlier.  Neither air-layers nor cuttings will root satisfactorily. Inarching can be accomplished with 50% success but is not a popular method because the grafts must be left on the trees for many months. Selected cultivars are propagated by patch-budding (a modified Forkert method) onto rootstocks 2 months old and pencil-thick, and the union should be permanent within 25 to 30 days. The plants can be set out in the field within 14 to 16 months. Grafted trees never grow as tall as seedlings; they are usually between 26 to 32 ft (8-10 m) tall; rarely 40 ft (12 m).


Guyabano (Soursop)
Scientific name:  Annona muricata
 
It is generally known in most Spanish-speaking countries as guanabana; in E1 Salvador, as guanaba; in Guatemala, as huanaba; in Mexico, often as zopote de viejas, or cabeza de negro; in Venezuela, as catoche or catuche; in Argentina, as anona de puntitas or anona de broquel; in Bolivia, sinini; in Brazil, araticum do grande, graviola, or jaca do Para; in the Netherlands Antilles, sorsaka or zunrzak, the latter name also used in Surinam andJava; in French-speaking areas of the West Indies, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, especially North Vietnam, it is known as corossol, grand corossol, corossol epineux, or cachiman epineux. In Malaya it may be called durian belanda, durian maki; or seri kaya belanda; in Thailand, thu-rian-khack.  The soursop tree is low-branching and bushy but slender because of its upturned limbs, and reaches a height of 25 or 30 ft (7.5-9 m). Young branchlets are rusty-hairy. The malodorous  leaves, normally evergreen, are alternate, smooth, glossy, dark
green on the upper surface, lighter beneath; oblong, elliptic or narrowobovate, pointed at both ends, 2 1/2 to 8 in (6.25-20 cm) long and 1 to 2 1/2 in (2.5-6.25 cm) wide. The flowers, which are borne singly, may emerge anywhere on the trunk, branches or twigs. They are short stalked, 1 1/2 to 2 in (4 5 cm) long, plump, and triangular-conical, the 3 fleshy, slightly spreading, outer petals yellow-green, the 3 close-set inner petals pale-yellow.  The fruit is more or less oval or heart-shaped, some times irregular, lopsided or curved, due to improper carper development or insect injury. The size ranges from 4 to 12 in (10-30 cm) long and up to 6 in (15 cm) in width, and the weight may be up to 10 or 15 lbs (4.5-6.8 kg). The fruit is compound and covered with a reticulated, leathery-appearing but tender, inedible, bitter skin from which protrude few or many stubby, or more elongated and curved, soft, pliable "spines". The tips break off easily when the fruit is fully ripe. The skin is dark-green in the immature fruit, becoming slightly yellowish-green before the mature fruit is soft to the touch. Its inner surface is cream-colored and granular and separates easily from the mass of snow-white, fibrous, juicy segments—much like flakes of raw fish—surrounding the central, soft-pithy core. In aroma, the pulp is somewhat pineapple-like, but its musky, subacid to acid flavor is unique. Most of the closely-packed segments are seedless. In each fertile segment there is a single oval, smooth, hard, black seed, l/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) long; and a large fruit may contain from a few dozen to 200 or more seeds.

Oviedo, in 1526, described the soursop as abundant in the West Indies and in northern South America. It is today found in Bermuda and the Bahamas, and both wild and cultivated, from sea-level to an altitude of 3,500 ft (1,150 m) throughout the West Indies and from southern Mexico to Peru and Argentina. It was one of the first fruit trees carried from America to the Old World Tropics where it has become widely distributed from southeastern China to Australia and the warm lowlands of eastern and western Africa. It is common in the markets of Malaya and southeast Asia. Very large, symmetrical fruits have been seen on sale in South Vietnam. It became well established at an early date in the Pacific Islands. The tree has been raised successfully but has never fruited in Israel.  In Florida, the soursop has been grown to a limited extent for possibly 110 years. Sturtevant noted that it was not included by Atwood among Florida fruits in 1867 but was listed by the American Pomological Society in 1879. A tree fruited at the home of John Fogarty of Manatee before the freeze of 1886. In the southeastern part of the state and especially on the Florida Keys, it is often planted in home gardens.

In regions where sweet fruits are preferred, as in South India and Guam, the soursop has not enjoyed great popularity. It is grown only to a limited extent in Madras. However, in the East Indies it has been acclaimed one of the best local fruits. In Honolulu, the fruit is occasionally sold but the demand exceeds the supply. The soursop is one of the most abundant fruits in the Dominican Republic and one of the most popular in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Colombia and northeastern Brazil.

In 1887, Cuban soursops were selling in Key West, Florida, at 10 to 50 cents apiece. In 1920, Wilson Popenoe wrote that: "In the large cities of tropical America, there is a good demand for the fruits at all times of the year, a demand which is not adequately met at present." The island of Grenada produces particularly large and perfect soursops and regularly delivers them by boat to the market of Port-of Spain because of the shortage in Trinidad. In Colombia, where the soursop is generally large, well-formed and of high quality, this is one of the 14 tropical fruits recommended by the Instituto Latinoamericano de Mercadeo Agricola for large-scale planting and marketing. Soursops produced in small plots, none over 5 acres (2.27 ha), throughout Venezuela supply the processing plants where the frozen concentrate is packed in 6 oz (170 g) cans. In 1968, 2,266 tons (936 MT) of juice were processed in Venezuela. The strained pulp is also preserved commercially in Costa Rica. There are a few commercial soursop plantations near the south coast of Puerto Rico and several processing factories. In 1977, the Puerto Rican crop totaled 219,538 lbs (99,790 kg).

At the First International Congress of Agricultural and Food Industries of the Tropical and Subtropical Zones, held in 1964,
scientists from the Research Laboratories of Nestle Products in Vevey, Switzerland, presented an evaluation of lesser-known
tropical fruits and cited the soursop, the guava and passionfruit as the 3 most promising for the European market, because of their distinctive aromatic qualities and their suitability for processing in the form of preserved pulp, nectar and jelly.

The soursop is truly tropical. Young trees in exposed places in southem Florida are killed by only a few degrees of frost. The trees that survive to fruiting age on the mainland are in protected situations, close to the south side of a house and sometimes near a source of heat. Even so, there will be temporary defoliation and interruption of fruiting when the temperature drops to near freezing. In Key West, where the tropical breadfruit thrives, the soursop is perfectly at home. In Puerto Rico, the tree is said to prefer an altitude between 800 and 1,000 ft (244300 m), with moderate humidity, plenty of sun and shelter from strong winds.

The soursop is usually grown from seeds. They should be sown in flats or containers and kept moist and shaded. Germination takes from 15 to 30 days. Selected types can be reproduced by cuttings or by shield-budding. Soursop seedlings are generally the best stock for propagation, though grafting onto custard apple (Annona reticulata), the mountain soursop (A. montana), or pond apple (A. glabra), is usually successful. The pond apple has a dwarfing effect. Grafts on sugar apple (A. squamosa) and cherimoya (A. cherimola) do not live for long, despite the fact that the soursop is a satisfactory rootstock for sugar apple in Ceylon and India.

Isip (bignay)
Scientific name:  Antidesma bunius Spreng.
 
The colorful bignay, Antidesma bunius Spreng., is called bignai and isip in the Philippines; buni or erunai in Malaya; wooni or hooni, in Indonesia; ma mao luang in Thailand; kho lien tu in Laos; choi moi in Vietnam; moi-kin and chunka by the aborigines in Queensland. Among English names are Chinese laurel, currant tree, nigger's cord, and salamander tree.   The tree may be shrubby, 10 to 26 ft (3-8 m) high, or may reach up to 50 or even 100 ft (15-30 m). It has wide-spreading branches forming a dense crown. The evergreen, alternate leaves are oblong, pointed, 4 to 9 in  (10-22.5 cm) long, 2 to 3 in (5-7.5 cm) wide, dark-green, glossy, leathery, with very short petioles. The tiny, odorous, reddish male and female flowers are produced on separate trees, the male in axillary or terminal spikes, the female in terminal racemes 3 to 8 in (7.5-20 cm) long. The round or ovoid fruits, up to 1/3 in (8 mm) across, are borne in grapelike, pendent clusters (often paired) which are extremely showy because the berries ripen unevenly, the pale yellowish-green, white, bright-red and nearly black stages present at the same time. The skin is 
thin and tough but yields an abundance of bright-red juice which leaves a purple stain on fabrics, while the pulp, only 1/8 in (3 mm) thick is white with colorless juice. Whole fruits are very acid, much like cranberries, when unripe; are subacid, slightly sweet, when fully ripe. Some tasters detect a bitter principle or "unpleasant aftertaste" which is unnoticeable to others.  There is a single, straw-colored stone, an irregular, flattened oval, ridged or fluted, very hard, 3/8 in (1 cm) long, 1/4 in (6 mm) wide.  P.J. Wester mentions a "very distinct and superior variety" as reliably reported from the Mountain Province, Philippines.  The bignay is native and common in the wild from the lower Himalayas in India, Ceylon, and southeast Asia (but not Malaya) to the Philippines and northern Australia. It is an abundant and invasive species in the Philippines; occasionally cultivated in Malaya; grown in every village in Indonesia where the fruits are marketed in clusters.

The United States Department of Agriculture received seeds from the Philippines in 1905 (S.P.I. #18393); twice in 1913 (S.P.I. #36088 and #34691), and again in 1918 (S.P.I. #46704). Quite a few trees have been planted in southern Florida in the past and the fruits were formerly appreciated as a source of juice for jelly, commercialized in a limited way, but are rarely so used today.  There are specimens in experimental stations in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Honduras and Hawaii.

The tree is not strictly tropical for it has proved to be hardy up to central Florida. It thrives in Java from sea-level to 4,000 ft (1,200 m). It grows well and flowers but does not set fruit in Israel.  Many seeds are non-viable in Florida, perhaps because of inadequate pollination. Since seedlings may turn out to be male, and female seedlings may not bear for a number of years, vegetative propagation is preferred. The tree is readily multiplied by cuttings, grafting or air-layering. The air-layers have borne fruit in 3 years after transplanting to the field. Ochse recommends grafting in the wet season because scions will remain dormant in dry weather. Most female trees will bear some fruit without the presence of a male because many of the flowers are perfect.

The trees should be spaced 40 to 45 ft (12-14 m) apart, each way. And one male tree should be planted for every 10 to 12 females to provide cross-pollination. Wind-protection is desirable when the trees are small. Otherwise they require very little cultural attention.

In Indonesia, the trees flower in September and October and the fruits mature in February and March. The fruiting season is July to September in North Vietnam. In Florida it extends from late summer through fall and winter because some trees bloom much later than others.  In Malaya, the fruits are eaten mostly by children. Indonesians cook the fruits with fish. Elsewhere the fruits (unripe and ripe together) are made into jam and jelly though the juice is difficult to jell and pectin must be added. Some cooks add lemon juice as well. If the extracted bignay juice is kept under refrigeration for a day or so, there will be a settling of somewhat astringent sediment which can be discarded, thus improving the flavor. For several years, the richly-colored jelly was produced on a small commercial scale in southern Florida. The juice makes an excellent sirup and has been successfully fermented into wine and brandy.  In Indonesia and the Philippines, the leaves are eaten raw or stewed with rice. They are often combined with other vegetables as flavoring.  The bark contains a toxic alkaloid. The heavy fragrance of the flowers, especially the male, is very obnoxious to some individuals.

Kamansi (Rimas) Breadfruit
Scientific name: Artocarpus altilis

One of the great food producers in its realm and widely known, at least by name, through its romanticized and dramatized
history, the breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis Fosb. (syns. A. communis J.R. and G. Forst.; A. incisus L.f.) belongs to the
mulberry family, Moraceae. The common name is almost universal, in English, or tanslated into Spanish as fruta de pan (fruit),
or arbor de pan, arbor del pan (tree), or pan de pobre; into French, as fruit a pain (seedless), chataignier (withseeds),
arbre a pain (tree); Portuguese, fruta pao, or pao de massa; Dutch, broodvrucht (fruit), broodboom (tree). InVenezuela it
may be called pan de ano, pan de todo el ano, pan de palo, pan de name, topan, or tupan; in Guatemale and Honduras,
mazapan (seedless), castana (with seeds); in Peru, marure; in Yucatan, castano de Malabar (with seeds); in Puerto Rico,
panapen (seedless), pana de pepitas (with seeds). In Malaya and Java, it is suku or sukun (seedless); kulur, kelur, or kulor
(with seeds); in Thailand, sa-ke, in the Philippines, rimas (seedless) or kamansi; in Hawaii, ulu. The type with seeds is sometimes called "breadnut", a name better limited to Brosimum alicastrum Swartz, an edible-seeded tree of Yucatan, Central America and nearby areas. Its Spanish name is ramon and the seeds, leaves and twigs are prized as stock feed.
 
The breadfruit tree is handsome and fast growing, reaching 85 ft (26 m) in height, often with a clear trunk to 20 ft (6 m) becoming 2 to 6 ft (0.6-1.8 m) in width and often buttressed at the base, though some varieties may never exceed 1/4 or 1/2 of these dimensions. There are many spreading branches, some thick with lateral foliage-bearing branchlets, others long and slender with foliage clustered only at their tips. The leaves, evergreen or deciduous depending on climatic conditions, on thick, yellow petioles to 1 1/2 in (3.8 cm) long, are ovate, 9 to 36 in (22.8-90 cm) long, 8 to 20 in (20-50 cm) wide, entire at the base, then more or less deeply cut into 5 to 11 pointed lobes. They are bright-green and glossy on the upper surface, with conspicuous yellow veins; dull, yellowish and coated with minute, stiff hairs on the underside.

The breadfruit is believed to be native to a vast area extending from New Guinea through the Indo-Malayan Archipelago to Western Micronesia. It is said to have been widely spread in the Pacific area by migrating Polynesians, and Hawaiians believed that it was brought from the Samoan island of Upalu to Oahu in the 12th Century A.D. It is said to have been first seen by Europeans in the Marquesas in 1595, then in Tahiti in 1606. At the beginning of the 18th Century, the early English explorers were loud in its praises, and its fame, together with several periods of famine in Jamaica between 1780 and 1786, inspired plantation owners in the British West Indies to petition King George III to import seedless breadfruit trees to provide food for their slaves.  There is good evidence that the French navigator Sonnerat in 1772 obtained the seeded breadfruit in the Philippines and brought it to the French West Indies. It seems also that some seedless and seeded breadfruit plants reached Jamaica from a French ship bound for Martinique but captured by the British in 1782. There were at least two plants of the seeded breadfruit in Jamaica in 1784 and distributions were quickly made to the other islands

The seeded breadfruit is always grown from seeds, which must be planted when fairly fresh as they lose viability in a few weeks. The seedless breadfruit is often propagated by transplanting suckers which spring up naturally from the roots. One can
deliberately induce suckers by uncovering and injuring a root. Pruning the parent tree will increase the number of suckers, and
root pruning each sucker several times over a period of months before taking it up will contribute to its survival when
transplanted. For multiplication in quantity, it is better to make root cuttings about 1 to 2 1/2 in (2.5-6.35 cm) thick and 9 in (22 cm) long. The ends may be dipped into a solution of potassium permanganate to coagulate the latex, and the cuttings are planted close together horizontally in sand. They should be shaded and watered daily, unless it is possible to apply intermittent mist. Calluses may form in 6 weeks (though rooting time may vary from 2 to 5 months) and the cuttings are transplanted to pots, at a slant, and watered once or twice a day for several months or until the plants are 2 ft (60 cm) high. A refined method of rapid propagation uses stem cuttings taken from root shoots. In Puerto Rico, the cuttings are transplanted into plastic bags containing a mixture of soil, peat and sand, kept under mist for a week, then under 65% shade, and given liquid fertilizer and regular waterings. When the root system is well developed, they are allowed full sun until time to set out in the field.

Lansones (Langsat, lansones, duku)
Scientific name: Lansium domesticum Corr.
 
The tree is erect, short-trunked, slender or spreading; reaching 35 to 50 ft (10.5 to 15 m) in height, with red-brown or yellow-brown, furrowed bark. Its leaves are pinnate, 9 to 20 in (22.5-50 cm) long, with 5 to 7 alternate leaflets, obovate or elliptic-oblong, pointed at both ends, 2 3/4 to 8 in (7-20 cm) long, slightly leathery, dark-green and glossy on the upper surface, paler and dull beneath, and with prominent midrib. Small, white or pale-yellow, fleshy, mostly bisexual, flowers are home in simple or branched racemes which may be solitary or in hairy clusters on the trunk and oldest branches, at first standing erect and finally pendant, and 4 to 12 in (10-30 cm) in length. The langsat originated in western Malaysia and is common both wild and cultivated throughout the Archipelago and on the 
island of Luzon in the Philippines where the fruits are very popular and the tree is being utilized in reforestation of hilly areas. It is much grown, too, in southern Thailand and Vietnam and flourishes in the Nilgiris and other humid areas of South India and the fruits are plentiful on local markets. The langsat was introduced into Hawaii before 1930 and is frequently grown at low elevations. An occasional tree may be found on other Pacific islands.

Lansium domesticaton occurs in at least four cultivated forms, namely, duku, langsat (lansones), duku langsat and dokong. They differ in tree form, fruit and in fruit arrangement.  A typical langsat fruit is borne in clusters of 6-10. An individual fruit is round or oval in shape, about 2.5 - 3.0cm long with a comparatively thin skin. The skin exudes latex even when it is mature. Its flesh is divided into 4 - 5 segments. Only one segment contains large, green bitter seed while others contain small seeds or are seedless. Its taste varies from sour, slightly sour to sweet.  he duku fruit is round, from 2.5 - 5.0cm in diameter with a thick (6mm) dark coloured skin more leathery than duku langsat and langsat. There are usually 4 - 12 fruits per raceme.  The duku langsat fruit resembles that of langsat in shape and colour except that it has a thicker skin. There are usually 5 - 25 fruits per raceme. The fruit is round or oval in shape and from 2 - 4cm in diameter. Like the langsat and duku the skin of duku langsat peels easily from the aril. In duku and duku langsat the flavour is generally very delicate and sweet.  Duku langsat is native to Malaysia, Phillippines and Java where it is widely distributed.  The Dokong is quite similar to the other lansium, fruit is aborate, flavour is sweet and a little samrish taste, the texture is soft and juicy. It is less asomatic compared to the other 2 lansium.
 
There are two distinct botanical varieties: 1) L. domesticum var. pubescens, the typical wild langsat which is a rather slender, open tree with hairy branchlets and nearly round, thick-skinned fruits having much milky latex; 2) var. domesticum, called the duku, doekoe, or dookoo, which is a more robust tree, broad-topped and densely foliaged with conspicuously-veined leaflets; the fruits, borne few to  a cluster, are oblong-ovoid or ellipsoid, with thin, brownish skin, only faintly aromatic and containing 
little or no milky latex.  The former is often referred to as the "wild" type but both varieties are cultivated and show considerable range of form, size and quality. There are desirable types in both groups. Some small fruits are completely seedless and fairly sweet.  'Conception' is a sweet cultivar from the Philippines; 'Uttaradit' is a popular selection in Thailand; 'Paete' is a leading cultivar in the Philippines.  The langsat is ultra-tropical. Even in its native territory it cannot be grown at an altitude over 2,100 to 2,500 ft (650-750 m). It needs a humid atmosphere, plenty of moisture and will not tolerate long dry seasons.  Some shade is beneficial especially during the early years.

Langsats are commonly grown from seeds which must be planted within 1 or 2 days after removal from the fruit. Viability is totally lost in 8 days unless the seeds are stored in polyethylene bags at 39.2º-42.8º F (4º-6º C) where they will remain viable for 14 days.  Seedlings will bear in 12 to 20 years. Air-layering is discouraging, as the root system is weak and the survival rate is poor after planting out. Shield-budding has a low rate of success. Cleft- and side-grafting and approach-grafting give good results. The budwood should be mature but not old, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 in (6.5-9 cm) long, 1/4 to 3/4 in (6-20 mm) thick, and it is joined to rootstock of the same diameter about 2 1/2 to 4 in (6.5-10 cm) above the soil. Some preliminary experiments have been conducted in Puerto Rico with hormone-treated cuttings under intermittent mist. Whitman found that a potted cutting 3 to 4 in (7.5-10 cm) long, will root if covered with a clear plastic bag.

Mabolo Mabolo)
Scientific name: Diospyros blancoi A. DC.
Family:  Ebenaceae

A minor member of the family Ebenaceae, more admired for its ornamental than its edible value, the mabolo has appeared in
literature for many years under the illegitimate binomial Diospyros discolor Willd. In 1968, Dr. Richard Howard, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University, proposed the adoption of D. blancoi A. DC., and this is now regarded as the correct
botanical designation for this species. The fruit is sometimes called velvet apple, or, in India, peach bloom. In Malaya, it is buah
mantega (butter fruit)–a term now often applied to the avocado–, or buah sakhlat, or sagalat (scarlet fruit). Mabolo (or mabulo) is the most common of the several Philippine dialectal names. Another, kamagon, is rendered camagon in Spanish.
 
The mabolo varies in form from a small straggly tree with drooping  branches, to an erect, straight tree to 60 or even 100 ft (18-33 m), with  stout, black, furrowed trunk to 50 in (80 cm) thick. It is rather slow-growing.  The evergreen, alternate leaves, oblong, pointed at the apex, rounded or  pointed at the base, are 6 to 9 in (15-22.8 cm) long, 2 to 3 1/2 in (5-9 cm)  wide;  leathery, dark-green, smooth and glossy on the upper surface, silvery-hairy  underneath.  New leaves are showy, pale-green or pink and silky-hairy. The  tubular, 4-lobed, waxy, faintly fragrant blooms are short-stalked,  creamy-white, downy. Male flowers 1/4 in (6 mm) wide, in small clusters,  and female flowers, 1/2 in (12.5 mm) wide, and solitary, are borne on  separate trees. Attractive and curious, the oval or oblate fruit, 2 to 4 in (5-10  cm) wide, has thin, pink, brownish, yellow, orange or purple-red skin,  densely coated with short, golden-brown or coppery hairs, and is capped at  the base with a dull-green, stiff calyx. The fruits are often borne in pairs,  very close together on opposite sides of a branch. A strong, unpleasant,  cheese-like odor is given off by the whole fruit but emanates from the skin,  for it is absent in the peeled flesh, which is whitish, firm, mealy, somewhat  like that of an overripe apple; moist but not very juicy; of mild, more or less 
Mabolo (Diospyros blancoi A. DC) also called
talang in Kapampangan
sweet flavor, suggesting a banana-flavored apple. There may be 4 to 8 brown, smooth, wedge-shaped seeds, about 1 1/2 in (4 cm) long and 1 in  (2.5 cm) wide, standing in a circle around the central core, though the fruits  are often completely seedless. Each seed is covered with a whitish  membrane that is transparent when fresh, opaque when dried.  The mabolo is indigenous to the low and medium altitude forests of the Philippine Islands from the island of Luzon to the southernmost of the Sulu Islands, and is commonly cultivated for its fruit and even more as a shade tree for roadsides. The tree was introduced into Java and Malaya, and, in 1881, into Calcutta and the Botanical Garden in Singapore, though it existed in Singapore before that date. In recent times, it has been decreasing in numbers in Malaya. It is only occasionally planted in India and then mainly as an ornamental because of the attractiveness of the foliage and the fruits.

Seeds were sent to the United States Department of Agriculture by W.S. Lyon, of the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture, in 1906, with a note of admiration for the tree and the exterior of the fruit but not the interior; still, more seeds were sent in 1909 and the seedlings thrived at the Plant Introduction Station in Miami. There are occasional specimens grown elsewhere in southern Florida and some scattered around the Caribbean area, in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad and the Lancetilla Experimental Garden in Honduras where plants were received from the Philippines in 1926 and seeds from Cuba in 1927. There are a few in Bermuda and in Hawaii where the mabolo first fruited in 1928. Nowhere has the mabolo gained the favor it enjoys in its homeland.

Mabolo trees vary in the degree of hairiness on the twigs and leaves. Burkill (in Malaya) and Mendiola (in the Philippines) refer to mabolos with red and copper-colored skin as distinct races. A race with purplish-red skin and unusually sweet flavor was long ago introduced into Malaya. In 1921, budded trees of a superior seedless cultivar called 'Manila' were shipped to the United States Department of Agriculture by P.J. Wester, who was then Horticulturist in charge of the Manila Experiment Station. The parent tree in the Philippines had a history of bearing crops of oblate, sweet, juicy fruits, 80% of them seedless, 20% having 1 to 3 seeds. Another seedless Philippine cultivar was named 'Valesca'.

Mendiola (1926) wrote that seedless mabolos "are easily distinguished from the seedy ones as they are flatter. It is believed by
some horticulturists and growers that these seedless fruits come from branches that are bud sports . . . it is impossible to confirm or deny this claim until it is known how much parthenocarpy has to do with . . . these seedless forms . . . the genus Diospyros is, in a number of cases, parthenocarpic."

The tree is generally grown from seeds. Shield-budding has been successfully practiced in the Philippines and is the preferred
means of perpetuating superior types.  Male trees must be planted near the female trees for effective pollination and fruit production. The tree does best in loam but flourishes very well in almost any soil with little care. It is rarely fertilized and seems to need no protective spraying.

The surface fuzz adheres tightly even when the fruit is ripe. Also, the skin, though thin and pliable, is tough and papery when
chewed. Therefore, the fruits should be peeled before eating, and then kept in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
Then the odor, which is mainly in the skin, will have largely dissipated.  Some people slice or quarter the flesh, season with lime or lemon juice or Grenadine sirup and serve fresh as dessert. The flesh is also diced and combined with that of other fruits in salads. If stewed in syrup, the flesh becomes fibrous and tough. Cut into strips and fried in butter, it is crisp and fairly agreeable as a vegetable of the dasheen or taro type appropriate for serving with ham, sausage or other spicy meat.

Makopa (Java Apple)
Scientific name:  Syzygium samarangense Merr. & Perry
 
This member of the Myrtaceae is botanically identified as Syzygium samarangense Merr. & Perry (syns. S. javanicum Miq.; Eugenia javanica Lam. in part; E. alba Roxb.). Among its various vernacular names are: samarang rose apple, djamboe semarang (Indonesia); jambu ayer rhio (Malaya); pini jambu (Ceylon);jumrool, jamrul, or amrool (India); chom pu kao, or chom pu kio (Thailand); makopa (Philippines); cashu di Surinam, or Curacaose appel (Curacao); wax apple, wax jambu and water apple, generally.  The tree, 16 to 50 ft (5-15 m) tall, has a short trunk 10 to 12 in (25-30 cm) thick, and open, widespreading crown, and pinkish-gray, flaking bark. The opposite leaves are nearly sessile, elliptic-oblong, rounded or slightly cordate at the base; yellowish to dark bluish-green; 4 
to 10 in (10-25 cm) long and 2 to 4 3/4 in (5-12 cm) wide; very aromatic when crushed. Flowers, borne in drooping panicles of 3 to 30 at the branch tips or in smaller clusters in the axils of fallen leaves, are fragrant, yellowish-white, 3/4 to 1 1/2 in (2-4 cm) broad, 4-petalled, with numerous stamens 3/5 to 1 in (1.5-2.5 cm) long. The waxy fruit, usually light-red, sometimes greenish-white or cream-colored, is pear-shaped, narrow at the base, very broad, flattened, indented and adorned with the 4 fleshy calyx lobes at the apex; 1 1/3 to 2 in (3.4-5 cm) long, 1 3/4 to 2 1/8 in (4.5-5.4 cm) wide. The skin is very thin, the flesh white, spongy, dry to juicy, subacid and very bland in flavor. There may be 1 or 2 somewhat rounded seeds 3/16 to 5/16 in (0.5-0.8 cm) wide, or none.

The tree is indigenous from Malaya to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands where there are wild trees in the coastal forests. It was introduced into the Philippines in prehistoric times and is widely grown throughout those islands. It is common in Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Taiwan, frequently cultivated in India and in Zanzibar and Pemba, but primarily as an ornamental, seldom for its fruits which are little valued. It was introduced into Jamaica before 1903 and also into Surinam and the islands of Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire. A few trees have been grown in Israel but have borne sparsely.

The Java apple is extra-tropical, growing only at the lower altitudes–up to 4,000 ft (1,220m)–in India. It does best in parts of the Philippines that have a long dry season.  The soil must be fertile, or the crops will be small and the fruit quality poor.  The trees grow spontaneously from seed. Preferred types are reproduced by layering, budding onto their own rootstocks, or onto seedlings of S. densiflorum A. DC., (the beautiful Wild Rose Apple of Malaya, which has edible flowers, undesirable fruits, but is not attacked by termites). Sometimes the Java apple is grafted onto the cultivated Rose Apple (q.v.).  If planted in orchards, the trees are spaced 26 to 32 ft (8-10 m) apart and are given a minimum of attention.  In Ceylon, the fruits are ripe from March to May; in India, the tree blooms in March and April and the fruit ripens in May and June; in Java, flowering occurs from April to June and fruiting from June to August.  The Java apple is a heavy bearer on good soil. When 5 years old it may yield a crop of 700 fruits.  In Malaya, the greenish fruits are eaten raw with salt or may be cooked as a sauce. They are also stewed with true apples. The pink fruits are juicier and more flavorful and suitable for eating out-of-hand or cooking without accompaniments except sugar.  Medicinal Uses: The flowers are astringent and used in Taiwan to treat fever and halt diarrhea. Investigators have found their principal constituent to be tannin. They also contain desmethoxymatteucinol, O-methyl-4'-desmethoxymatteucinol, oleanic acid and B-sitosterol. They show weak antibiotic action against Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium smegmatis, and Candida albicans.

Mangga (Mango)
Scientific name:  Mangifera indica L.
 
The luscious mango, Mangifera indica L., one of the most celebrated of tropical fruits, is a member of the family ardiaceae; notorious for embracing a number of highly poisonous plants. The universality of its renown is attested by the wide usage of the name, mango in English and Spanish and, with only slight variations in French (mangot, mangue, manguier), Portuguese (manga, mangueira), and Dutch (manja). In some parts, of Africa, it is called mangou, or mangoro. The mango tree is erect, 30 to 100 ft (roughly 10-30 m) high, with a broad, rounded canopy which may, with age, attain 100 to 125 ft (30-38 m) in width, or a more upright, oval, relatively slender crown. In deep soil, the taproot descends to a depth of 20 ft (6 in), the profuse, wide-spreading, feeder root system also sends down many anchor roots which penetrate for several feet. The tree is long-lived, some specimens being known to be 300 years old and still fruiting.  Nearly evergreen, alternate leaves are borne mainly in rosettes at the tips of 
the branches and numerous twigs from which they droop like ribbons on slender petioles 1 to 4 in (2.5-10 cm) long. The new leaves, appearing periodically and irregularly on a few branches at a time, are yellowish, pink, deep-rose or wine-red, becoming dark-green and glossy above, lighter beneath. The midrib is pale and conspicuous and the many horizontal veins distinct. Full-grown leaves may be 4 to 12.5 in (10-32 cm) long and 3/4 to 2 1/8 in (2-5.4 cm) wide. Hundreds and even as many as 3,000 to 4,000 small, yellowish or reddish flowers, 25% to 98% male, the rest hermaphroditic, are borne in profuse, showy, erect, pyramidal, branched clusters 2-1/2 to 15 1/2 in (6-40 cm) high. There is great variation in the form, size, color and quality of the fruits. They may be nearly round, oval, ovoid-oblong, or somewhat kidney-shaped, often with a break at the apex, and are usually more or less lop-sided. They range from 2 1/2 to 10 in (6.25-25 cm) in length and from a few ounces to 4 to 5 lbs (1.8-2.26 kg). The skin is leathery, waxy, smooth, fairly thick, aromatic and ranges from light-or dark-green to clear yellow, yellow-orange, yellow and reddish-pink, or more or less blushed with bright-or dark-red or purple-red, with fine yellow, greenish or reddish dots, and thin or thick whitish, gray or purplish bloom, when fully ripe. Some have a "turpentine" odor and flavor, while others are richly and pleasantly fragrant. The flesh ranges from pale-yellow to deep-orange. It is essentially peach-like but much more fibrous (in some seedlings excessively so-actually "stringy"); is extremely juicy, with a flavor range from very sweet to subacid to tart.  There is a single, longitudinally ribbed, pale yellowish-white, somewhat woody stone, flattened, oval or kidney-shaped, sometimes rather elongated. It may have along one side a beard of short or long fibers clinging to the flesh cavity, or it may be nearly fiberless and free. Within the stone is the starchy seed, monoembryonic (usually single-sprouting) or polyembryonic (usually producing more than one seedling).

Native to southern Asia, especially eastern India, Burma, and the Andaman Islands, the mango has been cultivated, praised and even revered in its homeland since ancient times. Buddhist monks are believed to have taken the mango on voyages to Malaya
and eastern Asia in the 4th and 5th Centuries B.C. The Persians are said to have carried it to East Africa about the 10th
Century A.D. It was commonly grown in the East Indies before the earliest visits of the Portuguese who apparently introduced
it to West Africa early in the 16th Century and also into Brazil. After becoming established in Brazil, the mango was carried to
the West Indies, being first planted in Barbados about 1742 and later in the Dominican Republic. It reached Jamaica about
1782 and, early in the 19th Century, reached Mexico from the Philippines and the West Indies.

In 1833, Dr. Henry Perrine shipped seedling mango plants from Yucatan to Cape Sable at the southern tip of mainland Florida
but these died after he was killed by Indians. Seeds were imported into Miami from the West Indies by a Dr. Fletcher in 1862
or 1863. From these, two trees grew to large size and one was still fruiting in 1910 and is believed to have been the parent of
the 'No. 11' which was commonly planted for many years thereafter. In 1868 or 1869, seeds were planted south of Coconut
Grove and the resultant trees prospered at least until 1909, producing the so-called 'Peach' or 'Turpentine' mango which became fairly common. In 1872, a seedling of 'No. 11' from Cuba was planted in Bradenton. In 1877 and 1879, W.P. Neeld
made successful plantings on the west coast but these and most others north of Ft. Myers were killed in the January freeze of
1886.  Mango growing began with the earliest settlers in North Queensland, Australia, with seeds brought casually from India, Ceylon, the East Indies and the Philippines. In 1875, 40 varieties from India were set out in a single plantation. Over the years,
selections have been made for commercial production and culture has extended to subtropical Western Australia.

Of Mexican mangos, 65% are Florida selections; 35% are of the type commonly grown in the Philippines. Over a period of 3
years detailed studies have been made of the commercial cultivars in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, with a view to determining the
most profitable for export. Results indicated that propagation of 'Purple Irwin', 'Red Irwin', 'Sensation' and 'Zill' should be
discontinued, and that 'Haden', 'Kent' and 'Keitt' will continue to be planted, the first two because, of their color and quality,
and the third in spite of its deficiency in color. 'Manila', a Philippine mango, early-ripening, is much grown in Veracruz. 'Manzanillo-Nunez', a chance seedling first noticed in 1972, is gaining in popularity because of its regular bearing, skin color (75% red), nearly fiberless flesh, good quality, high yield and resistance to anthracnose.

Mango trees grow readily from seed. Germination rate and vigor of seedlings are highest when seeds are taken from fruits that
are fully ripe, not still firm. Also, the seed should be fresh, not dried. If the seed cannot be planted within a few days after its
removal from the fruit, it can be covered with moist earth, sand, or sawdust in a container until it can be planted, or kept in
charcoal dust in a dessicator with 50% relative humidity. Seeds stored in the latter manner have shown 80% viability even after
70 days. High rates of germination are obtained if seeds are stored in polyethylene bags but the seedling behavior may be poor. Inclusion of sphagnum moss in the sack has no benefit and shows inferior rates of germination over 2- to 4-week periods, and
none at all at 6 weeks. The flesh should be completely removed. Then the husk is opened by carefully paring around the convex edge with a sharp knife and taking care not to cut the kernel, which will readily slide out. Husk removal speeds germination and avoids cramping of roots, and also permits discovery and removal of the larva of the seed weevil in areas where this pest is prevalent. Finally, the husked kernels are treated with fungicide and planted without delay. The beds must have solid bottoms to prevent excessive taproot growth, otherwise the taproot will become 18 to 24 in (45-60 cm) long while the top will be only one third to a half as high, and the seedling will be difficult to transplant with any assurance of survival. The seed is placed on its ventral (concave) edge with 1/4 protruding above the sand. Sprouting occurs in 8 to 14 days in a warm, tropical climate; 3 weeks in cooler climates. Seedlings generally take 6 years to fruit and 15 years to attain optimum yield for evaluation.

However, the fruits of seedlings may not resemble those of the parent tree. Most Indian mangos are monoembryonic; that is,
the embryo usually produces a single sprout, a natural hybrid from accidental crossing, and the resulting fruit may be inferior,
superior, or equal to that of the tree from which the seed came. Mangos of Southeast Asia are mostly polyembryonic. In these,
generally, one of the embryos in the seed is a hybrid; the others (up to 4) are vegetative growths which faithfully reproduce the
characteristics of the parent. The distinction is not absolute, and occasionally a seed supposedly of one class may behave like
the other.

Seeds of polyembryonic mangos are most convenient for local and international distribution of desirable varieties. However, in
order to reproduce and share the superior monoembryonic selections, vegetative propagation is necessary. Inarching and
approach-grafting are traditional in India. Tongue-, saddle-, and root-grafting (stooling) are also common Indian practices.
Shield- and patch-grafting have given up to 70% success but the Forkert system of budding has been found even more
practical. After many systems were tried, veneer grafting was adopted in Florida in the mid-1950's. Choice of rootstock is
important. Use of seedlings of unknown parentage has resulted in great variability in a single cultivar. Some have believed that
polyembryonic rootstocks are better than monoembryonic, but this is not necessarily so. In trials at Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University, 10-year-old trees of 'Neelum' grafted on polyembryonic 'Bapakkai' showed vigor and spread of tree and
productivity far superior to those grafted on 'Olour' which is also polyembryonic. Those grafted on monoembryonic rootstock
also showed better growth and yield than those on 'Olour'. In 1981, experimenters at Lucknow, India, reported the economic
advantage of "stone-grafting", which requires less space in the nursery and results in greater uniformity. Scions from the spring
flush of selected cultivars are defoliated and, after a 10-day delay, are cleft-grafted on 5-day-old seedlings which must
thereafter be kept in the shade and protected from drastic changes in the weather.

Old trees of inferior types are top-worked to better cultivars by either side-grafting or crown-grafting the beheaded trunk or
beheaded main branches. Such trees need protection from sunburn until the graft affords shade. In South Africa, the trunks are
whitewashed and bunches of dry grass are tied onto cut branch ends. The trees will bear in 2 to 3 years. Attempts to grow 3 or 4 varieties on one rootstock may appear to succeed for a while but the strongest always outgrows the others.

Cuttings, even when treated with growth regulators, are only 40% successful. Best results are obtained with cuttings of mature
trees, ringed 40 days before detachment, treated, and rooted under mist. But neither cuttings nor air layers develop good root
systems and are not practical for establishing plantations. Clonal propagation through tissue culture is in the experimental stage.
In spite of vegetative propagation, mutations arise in the form of bud sports. The fruit may differ radically from the others on a
grafted tree-perhaps larger and superior-and the foliage on the branch may be quite unlike that on other branches.

Mangostan (Mangosteen)
Scientific name:  Garcinia mangostana L.
 
One of the most praised of tropical fruits, and certainly the most esteemed fruit in the family Guttiferae, the mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana L., is almost universally known or heard of by this name. There are numerous variations in nomenclature: among Spanish-speaking people, it is called mangostan; to the French, it is mangostanier, mangoustanier, mangouste or mangostier; in Portuguese, it is mangostao, mangosta or mangusta; in Dutch, it is manggis or manggistan; 
in Vietnamese, mang cut; in Malaya, it may be referred to in any of these languages or by the local terms, mesetor, semetah, or sementah; in the Philippines, it is mangis or mangostan. Throughout the Malay Archipelago, there are many different spellings of names similar to most of the above.  The mangosteen tree is very slow-growing, erect, with a pyramidal crown; attains 20 to 82 ft (6-25 m) in height, has dark-brown or nearly black, flaking bark, the inner bark containing much yellow, gummy, bitter latex.  The evergreen, opposite, short-stalked leaves are 
ovate-oblong or elliptic, leathery and thick, dark-green, slightly glossy above, yellowish-green and dull beneath; 3-1/2 to 10 in (9-25 cm) long, 1 3/4 to 4 in (4.5-10 cm) wide, with 
conspicuous, pale midrib. New leaves are rosy. Flowers, 1 1/2 to 2 in (4-5 cm) wide and fleshy, may be male or hermaphrodite on the same tree.  The former are in clusters of 3-9 at the branch tips; there are 4 sepals and 4 ovate, thick, fleshy petals, green with red spots on the outside, yellowish-red inside, and many stamens though the aborted anthers bear no pollen. The hermaphrodite are borne singly or in pairs at the tips of young branchlets; their petals may be yellowish-green edged with red or mostly red, and are quickly shed.

The fruit, capped by the prominent calyx at the stem end and with 4 to 8 triangular, flat remnants of the stigma in a rosette at the apex, is round, dark-purple to red-purple and smooth externally; 1 1/3 to 3 in (3.4-7.5 cm) in diameter. The rind is 1/4 to 3/8 in (6-10 mm) thick, red in cross-section, purplish-white on the inside. It contains bitter yellow latex and a purple, staining juice. There are 4 to 8 triangular segments of snow-white, juicy, soft flesh (actually the arils of the seeds). The fruit may be seedless or have 1 to 5 fully developed seeds, ovoid-oblong, somewhat flattened, 1 in (2.5 cm) long and 5/8 in (1.6 cm) wide, that cling to the flesh. The flesh is slightly acid and mild to distinctly acid in flavor and is acclaimed as exquisitely luscious and delicious.

Technically, the so-called "seeds" are not true seeds but adventitious embryos, or hypocotyl tubercles, inasmuch as there has
been no sexual fertilization. When growth begins, a shoot emerges from one end of the seed and a root from the other end. But
this root is short-lived and is replaced by roots which develop at the base of the shoot. The process of reproduction being
vegetative, there is naturally little variation in the resulting trees and their fruits. Some of the seeds are polyembryonic, producing
more than one shoot. The individual nucellar embryos can be separated, if desired, before planting. Inasmuch as the percentage of germination is directly related to the weight of the seed, only plump, fully developed seeds should be chosen for planting. Even these will lose viability in 5 days after removal from the fruit, though they are viable for 3 to 5 weeks in the fruit. Seeds packed in lightly dampened peat moss, sphagnum moss or coconut fiber in airtight containers have remained viable for 3 months. Only 22% germination has been realized in seeds packed in ground charcoal for 15 days.  Soaking in water for 24 hours expedites and enhances the rate of germination. Generally, sprouting occurs in 20 to 22 days and is complete in 43 days.
Because of the long, delicate taproot and poor lateral root development, transplanting is notoriously difficult. It must not be
attempted after the plants reach 2 ft (60 cm). At that time the depth of the taproot may exceed that height. There is greater
seedling survival if seeds are planted directly in the nursery row than if first grown in containers and then transplanted to the
nursery. The nursery soil should be 3 ft (1 m) deep, at least. The young plants take 2 years or more to reach a height of 12 in
(30 cm), when they can be taken up with a deep ball of earth and set out. Fruiting may take place in 7 to 9 years from planting
but usually not for 10 or even 20 years.

Mansanita (Indian Jujube)
Scientific name: Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.
Ziziphus jujuba L.
 
While the better-known, smooth-leaved Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) of the family Rhamnaceae, is of ancient culture in northern China and is widely grown in mild-temperate, rather dry areas, of both hemispheres, the Indian jujube, Z. mauritiana Lam. (syn. Z. jujuba L.) is adapted to warm climates. It is often called merely jujube, or Chinese date, which leads to confusion with the hardier species. Other English names are Indian Plum, Indian cherry and Malay jujube. In Jamaica it may be called coolie plum or crabapple; in Barbados, dunk or mangustine; in Trinidad and Tropical Africa, dunks; in Queensland, Chinese apple. In Venezuela it is ponsigne or yuyubo; in Puerto Rico, aprin or yuyubi; in the Dominican Republic, perita haitiana; in the French-speaking West Indies, pomme malcadi, pomme surette, petit pomme, liane croc chien, gingeolier or dindoulier. In the Philippines it is called manzana or manzanita ("apple" or "little apple"); in Malaya, bedara; in
Indonesia and Surinam, widara; in Thailand, phutsa or ma-tan; in Cambodia, putrea; in Vietnam, tao or tao nhuc. In India it is most commonly known as ber, orbor.

The plant is a vigorous grower and has a rapidly-developing taproot. It may be a bushy shrub 4 to 6 ft (1.2-1.8 m) high, or a tree 10 to 30 or even 40 ft (3-9 or 12 m) tall; erect or wide-spreading, with gracefully drooping branches and downy, zigzag branchlets, thornless or set with short, sharp straight or hooked spines. It may be evergreen, or leafless for several weeks in hot summers. The leaves are alternate, ovate- or oblong-elliptic, 1 to 2 1/2 in (2.5-6.25 cm) long, 3/4 to 1 1/2 in (2-4 cm) wide; distinguished from those of the Chinese jujube by the dense, silky, whitish or brownish hairs on the underside and the short, downy petioles. On the upper surface, they are very glossy, dark-green, with 3 conspicuous, depressed, longitudinal veins, and there are very fine teeth on the margins.

The 5-petalled flowers are yellow, tiny, in 2's or 3's in the leaf axils. The fruit of wild trees is 1/2 to 1 in (1.25-2.5 cm) long. With sophisticated cultivation, the fruit reaches 2 1/2 in (6.25 cm) in length and 1 3/4 in (4.5 cm) in width.  The form may be oval, obovate, round or oblong; the skin smooth or rough, glossy, thin but tough, turns from light-green to yellow, later becomes partially or wholly burnt-orange or red-brown or all-red. When slightly underripe, the flesh is white, crisp, juicy, acid or subacid to sweet, somewhat astringent, much like that of a crabapple. Fully ripe fruits are less crisp and somewhat mealy; overripe fruits are wrinkled, the flesh buff-colored, soft, spongy and musky. At first the aroma is applelike and pleasant but it becomes peculiarly musky as the fruit ages. There is a single, hard, oval or oblate, rough central stone which contains 2 elliptic, brown seeds, 1/4 in (6 mm) long.

The Indian jujube is native from the Province of Yunnan in southern China to Afghanistan, Malaysia and Queensland, Australia. It is cultivated to some extent throughout its natural range but mostly in India where it is grown commercially and has received much horticultural attention and refinement despite the fact that it frequently escapes and becomes a pest. It was introduced into Guam about 1850 but is not often planted there or in Hawaii except as an ornamental. Specimens are scattered about the drier parts of the West Indies, the Bahamas, Colombia and Venezuela, Guatemala, Belize, and southern Florida. In Barbados, Jamaica and Puerto Rico the tree is naturalized and forms thickets in uncultivated areas. In 1939, 6 trees from Malaysia were introduced into Israel and flourished there. They bore very light crops of fruit heavily infested with fruit flies and were therefore destroyed to protect other fruit trees.  It is widely grown from seeds, which may remain viable for 2 1/2 years but the rate of germination declines with age. Superior selections are grafted or budded onto seedlings of wild types. Vegetative propagation of highly prized varieties was practiced near Bombay about 1835 but kept secret until 1904, and then was quickly adopted by many people. Ring-budding has been popular in the past but has been largely superseded by shield-budding or T-budding. Grafted plants are less thorny than seedlings.  To select seeds for growing rootstocks, the stones must be taken from fruits that have fully ripened on the tree. They are put into a 17 to 18% salt solution and all that float are discarded. The stones that sink are dipped in 500 ppm thiourea for 4 hours, then cracked and the separated seeds will germinate in 7 days. Seeds in uncracked stones require 21 to 28 days. If seeds are sown in spring, the seedlings will be ready for budding in 4 months. Great care must be taken in transplanting nursery stock to the field because of the taproot. Therefore, the rootstocks may be raised directly in the field and budding done in situ. Inferior seedling trees, including wild trees, can be topworked to preferred cultivars in June and some fruit will be borne a year later. From 1935 to 1939, the Punjab Department of Agriculture top-worked 50,000 trees without cost to the growers. Air-layers will root if treated with IBA and NAA at 5,000 to 7,500 ppm and given 100 ppm boron. Cuttings of mature wood at least 2 years old can be rooted and result in better yields than those taken at a younger stage.

At Punjab University, horticulturists have experimented with stooling as a means of propagation. They transplanted one-year-old seedlings into stool beds, cut them back to 4 in (10 cm), found that the shoots would root only if ringed and treated with IBA, preferably at 12,000 ppm.

Milun (Cantaloupe or sometimes Muskmelon)
Scientific name:  Cucumis melo Linnaeus. var. reticulatus Naud.
 
Cantaloupe is often, incorrectly, referred to interchangeably as Muskmelon. This botanical group, however, includes honeydew, crenshaw, Persian, casaba and other 'mixed melons.  Cantaloupe is only one of the numerous cultivated melons in the highly polymorphic species, Cucumis melo Linnaeus, that is grown for the sweet edible fruit walls (Purseglove, 1968). The seeds are also eaten, and contain a high proportion of oil. The term cantaloupe, as used in this EA, refers to the common American usage of the term, to designate those melon cultivars with net-veined fruits, that are commonly referred to as cantaloupes or muskmelons in United States commerce (Everett, 1981).  The true cantaloupes, the smooth-fruited cantaloupes, common in Europe, but uncommon in the United States, and derived from those plants first developed in Cantaluppi, Italy, are not the subject of this EA (Milne and Milne, 1975). 
Cucumis melo probably originated in Africa, from which it dispersed in cultivation to Egypt, then to the rest of Europe, China, India, the remainder of Asia, and finally throughout much of the world (Milne and Milne, 1975).

Cucumis melo is a member of the Cucurbitaceae, a family of about 90 genera and 700 to 760 species, mostly of the tropics
(Porter, 1967). The family includes pumpkins, squashes, gourds, watermelon, loofah, and several weeds. The genus Cucumis, to
which the cantaloupe, cucumbers, and several melons belong, includes about 70 species (Hutchinson, 1967; Terrell et al., 1986).
Five species of Cucumis, including C. melo and C. sativus, the cucumber, are native to or naturalized in the United States (Kartesz
and Kartesz, 1980). Cucumis melo includes a wide range of cultivated plants. Although crosses outside the species are sterile, intraspecific crosses are generally fertile, resulting in a confusing range of variation (Purseglove, 1968). The more common cultivated plants fall into four main groups. First are the true cantaloupes of Europe. These have thick, scaly, rough, often deeply grooved, but not netted rinds.  Second are the musk-melons, mostly grown in the United States, where they are incorrectly called cantaloupes. These have finely netted rinds with shallow ribs. Third are the casaba or winter melons with large fruits. These have smooth, often yellow rinds. The honeydew melons are in this third group. Fourth are a group of elongated melons of India, China, and Japan. These are grown as vegetables (Purseglove, 1968). Other classification schemes and peculiar cultivars could be presented (Everett, 1981).

Milun (pakwan) Dagis (Lobulobuan) (Cape gooseberry)
Scientific names:  Physalis peruviana L.
Physalis edulis Sims
 
The gooseberry has many colloquial names in Latin America: capuli, aguaymanto, tomate sylvestre, or uchuba, in Peru; capuli or motojobobo embolsado in Bolivia; uvilla in Ecuador; uvilla, uchuva, vejigón or guchavo in Colombia; topotopo, or chuchuva in Venezuela; capuli, amor en bolsa, or bolsa de amor, in Chile; cereza del Peru in Mexico. It is called cape gooseberry, golden berry, pompelmoes or apelliefie in South Africa; alkekengi or coqueret in Gabon; lobolobohan and milun (pakwan) dagis in the Philippines; teparee, tiparee, makowi, etc., in India; cape gooseberry or poha in Hawaii.  This herbaceous or soft-wooded, perennial plant usually reaches 2 to 3 ft (1.6-0.9 m) in height but occasionally may attain 6 ft (1.8) m. It has ribbed, often purplish, spreading branches, and nearly opposite, velvety, heart-shaped, pointed,  randomly-toothed  leaves 2 3/8 to 6 in (6-15 cm) long and 1 1/2 to 4 in (4-10 cm) wide, and, in the leaf axils, bell-shaped, nodding
flowers to 3/4 in (2 cm) wide, yellow with 5 dark purple-brown spots in the throat, and cupped by a purplish-green, hairy, 5-pointed calyx.  After the flower falls, the calyx expands, ultimately forming a straw-colored husk much larger than the fruit it encloses. The berry is globose, 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) wide, with smooth, glossy, orange-yellow skin and juicy pulp containing numerous very small yellowish seeds. When fully ripe, the fruit is sweet but with a pleasing grape-like tang. The husk is bitter and inedible.  Reportedly native to Peru and Chile, where the fruits are casually eaten and occasionally sold in markets but the plant is still not an important crop, it has been widely introduced into cultivation in other tropical, subtropical and even temperate areas. It is said to succeed wherever tomatoes can be grown. The plant was grown by early settlers at the Cape of Good Hope before 1807. In South Africa it is commercially cultivated and common as an escape and the jam and canned whole fruits are staple commodities, often exported. It is cultivated and naturalized on a small scale in Gabon and other parts of Central Africa.  In China, India and Malaya, the cape gooseberry is commonly grown but on a lesser scale. In India, it is often interplanted with vegetables. It is naturalized on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Seeds were taken to Hawaii before 1825 and the plant is naturalized on all the islands at medium and somewhat higher elevations. It was at one time extensively cultivated in Hawaii. By 1966, commercial culture had nearly disappeared and processors had to buy the fruit from backyard growers at high prices.

The plant is widely grown from seed. There are 5,000 to 8,000 seeds to the ounce (28 g) and, since germination rate is low,
this amount is needed to raise enough plants for an acre–2 1/2 oz (70 g) for a hectare. In India, the seeds are mixed with wood
ash or pulverized soil for uniform sowing.  Sometimes propagation is done by means of 1-year-old stem cuttings treated with hormones to promote rooting, and 37.7% success has been achieved. The plants thus grown flower early and yield well but are less vigorous than seedlings. Air-layering is also successful but not often practiced.

Nangka (Jackfruit) (also called yangka)
Scientific name: Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.
 
The tree is handsome and stately, 30 to 70 ft (9-21 m) tall, with evergreen, alternate, glossy, somewhat leathery leaves to 9 in (22.5 cm) long, oval on mature wood, sometimes oblong or deeply lobed on young shoots. All parts contain a sticky, white latex. Short, stout flowering twigs emerge from the trunk and large branches, or even from the soil-covered base of very old trees. The tree is monoecious: tiny male flowers are borne in oblong clusters 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) in length; the female flower clusters are elliptic or rounded.  Largest of all tree-borne fruits, the jackfruit may be 8 in to 3 ft (20-90 cm) long and 6 to 20 in (15-50 cm) wide, and the weight ranges from 10 to 60 or even as much as 110 lbs (4.5-20 or 50 kg). The "rind' or exterior of the compound or aggregate fruit is green or yellow when ripe and composed of numerous hard, cone-like points attached to a thick and rubbery, pale yellow or whitish wall. The interior consists of large "bulbs" (fully developed
perianths) of yellow, banana-flavored flesh, massed among narrow ribbons of thin, tough undeveloped perianths (or perigones), and a central, pithy core.  Each bulb encloses a smooth, oval,  light-brown "seed" (endocarp) covered by a thin white membrane (exocarp).
 
The seed is 3/4 to 1 1/2 in (2-4 cm) long and 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) thick and is white and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.   No one knows the jackfruit's place of origin but it is believed indigenous to the rainforests of the Western Ghats. It is cultivated at low elevations throughout India, Burma, Ceylon, southern China, Malaya, and the East Indies. It is common in the Philippines, both cultivated and naturalized. It is grown to a limited extent in Queensland and Mauritius. In Africa, it is often planted in Kenya, Uganda and former Zanzibar. Though planted in Hawaii prior to 1888, it is still rare there and in other Pactfic islands, as it is in most of tropical America and the West Indies. It was introduced into northern Brazil in the mid-19th Century and is more popular there and in Surinam than elsewhere in the New World. 

Ngungut (Coconut)
Scientific name:  Cocos nucifera
(The following ethnobotanical description is from Karen Smith's webpage entitled  Ethnobotanical Leaflets)
 
This very tall palm tree is always an inviting symbol of the tropics.  It is one of the most valuable plants to man, a primary source of food, drink, and shelter. In Sanskrit the coconut palm is called "kalpa vriksha", which is defined as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life."  Man can use every part of the coconut. The white nut-meat can be eaten raw or shredded and dried and used in most cooking recipes. A single coconut has as much protein as a quarter pound of beefsteak. Copra, the dried meat of the kernels, when crushed is the source of coconut oil. The husks, known as coir, is a short, coarse, elastic fibers used to make an excellent thatch roofing material for houses. This very diverse plant is also an excellent charcoal, which is produced from the shells, not only does it work as a cooking fuel, but also in the production of gas masks and air filters. The outer part of the trunk of the coconut palm furnishes, a
construction lumber, known as porcupine wood for houses and furniture. The swollen base of the trunk, when hollowed, can be turned into a hula drum that the Hawaiians use for entertainment.  These are just a few examples of how extraordinary the coconut palm can be utilized.

The coconut was first mentioned in 545 AD by an Egyptian Monk named Cosmos Indicopleustes. He visited western India and
Ceylon. In his "Topographia Christiana", Cosmos describes the coconut as the "great nut of India." The Mahavasma, an ancient
chronological history of Ceylon, describes the planting of coconuts in that country in 589 AD.  In 1280 Marco Polo, described coconut growing in Sumatra, as well as in Madras and Malabar in India, calling it nux indica, the Indian nut. The first detailed description of the coconut palm in western literature was provided by the Italian explorer Lodovico, diVarthema in his "Itinerario" of 1510, in which he referred to it as tenga. The coconut palm was unquestionable spread by Austronesians through the Pacific, perhaps eventually to the Pacific coast of Central America, and westward to India and East Africa. In Western Melanesian charred fruits were sited back to 3000 BC. The coconut was an important tropical economic with its enormous range of uses.

Palmae, the palm family to which the coconut belongs to, is one of the oldest and most diverse of the plant families. Palms have
many botanical characteristics such as woody trunk, in many species, perennial growth, leaves which are folded like a fan and the production of a single seed leaf which, along with grasses, lilies and other families classifies them as monocotyledons. There have been sixty other species under the genus Cocos, but the coconut palm stands by itself and is monotypic - meaning that within the genus Cocos only one species, nucifera, is recognized. Consequently, every coconut palm in the world is taxonomically the same species, which probably makes it the most abundant single food tree in existence.

There have been many other palms that have been classified very closely to the coconut, which have confused it with other
plethora of scientific and popular names. One example, the double coconut, also known as the Maldive nut, Lodoicea maldivia.
This very large nut looks like two coconuts joined together, side by side, but it is not related to the coconut. It belongs to the
Borassoid group of palms.

Two major classes of coconuts are typically recognized on the basis of stature: tall and dwarf. The ones most commonly planted for commercial purposes are the tall varieties, which are slow to mature and first flower six to ten years after planting. They produce medium-to-large size nuts and have a life span of sixty to seventy years. The dwarf varieties may have originated as a mutation of tall types. The dwarf variety may grow to a height of twenty-five to thirty feet and begin flower after three years, being only about three feet tall. Their life span is only about thirty years. Although highly difficult to grow, the dwarf varieties are valued because they bear early and are resistant to lethal yellowing disease.

There are a considerable number of varieties of coconut including tall and dwarf that have resulted in worldwide distribution. Each major coconut has its own dominant tall variety:  Ceylon Tall, Indian Tall, Jamaica Tall, Malayan Tall, Java Tall, and Laguna (which is a widely grown tall type in the Philippines). There are also many dwarf varieties: Malayan Dwarf, Dwarf Green, and Dwarf Orange from India.

There are also some unusual types of coconut palms in different parts of the world. The Macapuno coconut of the Philippines is
famous for having no milk cavity. The jelly-like flesh fills the middle and can be eaten with a spoon. The San Ramon variety from the Philippines produces one of the largest nuts known.

Distribution of the coconut palm extends over most of the tropical islands and coasts and on some places outside the tropic zone.  In India, the palm is found as far North as Lacknow ( at 26 degrees N), however it does not commonly fruit there. In Africa the northern limits are on the west coast, Cape Verde (15 degrees N); and on the east coast Djibouti (11.50 degrees N), 24 degrees N isolated palms have been discovered on the Red Sea. Mossamedes, or the south end of Africa and Zambezi River (19 degrees S) on the east. In South America as low as 27 degrees S the palm grows in North America at 25 degrees N in Florida and the Bahamas. The plantations furthest from the equator are probably those in Florida.

Pakwan (Watermelon)
Scientific name:  Citrullus lanatus Thunb.
 
The watermelon is thought to have originated in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. The first recorded watermelon harvest occurred nearly 5,000 years ago in Egypt and is depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphics on the walls of their ancient buildings. Watermelons were often placed in the burial tombs of kings to nourish them in the afterlife. From there, watermelons spread throughout countries along the Mediterranean Sea by way of merchant ships. By the 10th century, watermelon found its way to China, which is now the world's number one producer of watermelons. The 13th century found watermelon spread through the rest of Europe via the Moors.  In 1615 the word "watermelon" first appeared in the English dictionary, according to John Mariani in his book, "The Dictionary of American Food & Drink."  Southern food historian, John Egerton, believes watermelon made its way to the United States with African slaves as he states in his book, "Southern Food."  The United States currently ranks fourth in worldwide production of watermelon. Watermelon has become a year-round staple in households the world over. With more countries than ever importing and exporting watermelons, it is easy to find the sweet, healthy and refreshing fruit any time of the year. 

Large melon varieties such as Crimson Sweet, Royal Majesty, Royal Star, Mirage, and Royal Sweet require a lot of space.
Icebox-type watermelons such as Sugarbaby and Jade Star. Seedless varieties--such as Crimson Trio, Laurel, Queen of Hearts, and Jack of Hearts--require less space and are better for gardeners with restricted space.  Seedless watermelon varieties require a pollen source or pollinator variety to be planted with them. Any seeded watermelon variety will be adequate. Choosing a variety that is different in exterior appearance will reduce confusion at harvest time. Pollinator plants should be used at a 2:1 ratio. For every 2 seedless plants, plant 1 seeded variety transplant.  Use seeds or transplants. Transplanted watermelons will mature 10 to 12 days earlier than plants that are direct-seeded. Always transplant seedless varieties. The seedcoat of seedless varieties adheres tightly to the cotyledons, so place seeds with the point up when starting transplants. All transplants should have 3 or fewer true leaves at the time of transplanting. Watermelon plants require a lot of space and should be planted at a 6-feet-by-4-feet spacing. Plant seedless and icebox types at a 2-feet-by-4-feet spacing. Large spacings increase air circulation, which in turn reduces disease pressure.


Papaya (Papaya) or Kapaya
Scientific name:  Carica papaya L.
 
The papaya, Carica papaya L., is a member of the small family Caricaceae allied to the Passifloraceae. As a dual- or multi-purpose, early-bearing, space-conserving, herbaceous crop, it is widely acclaimed, despite its susceptibility to natural enemies. 

In some parts of the world, especially Australia and some islands of the West Indies, it is known as papaw, or pawpaw, names which are better limited to the very different, mainly wild Asimina triloba Dunal, belonging to the Annonaceae. While the name papaya is widely recognized, it has been corrupted to kapaya, kepaya, lapaya or tapaya in southern Asia and the East Indies.  In French, it is papaye (the fruit) and papayer (the plant), or sometimes figuier des Iles. Spanish-speaking people employ the 
names melón zapote, lechosa, payaya (fruit), papayo or papayero (the plant), fruta bomba, mamón or mamona, depending on the country. In Brazil, the usual name is mamao. When first encountered by Europeans it was quite naturally nicknamed "tree melon".  Commonly and erroneously
referred to as a "tree", the plant is properly a large herb growing at the rate of 6 to 10 ft (1.8-3 m) the first year and reaching 20 or even 30 ft (6-9 m) in height, with a hollow green or deep-purple stem becoming 12 to 16 in (30-40 cm) or more thick at the base and roughened by leaf scars. The leaves emerge directly from the upper part of the stem in a spiral on nearly horizontal petioles 1 to 3 1/2 ft (30-105 cm) long, hollow, succulent, green or more or less dark purple. The blade, deeply divided into 5 to 9 main segments, each irregularly subdivided, varies from 1 to 2 ft (30-60 cm) in width and has prominent yellowish ribs and veins. The life of a leaf is 4 to 6 months. Both the stem and leaves contain copious white milky latex.
 
The 5-petalled flowers are fleshy, waxy and slightly fragrant. Some plants bear only short-stalked pistillate (female) flowers, waxy and ivory-white; or hermaprodite (perfect) flowers (having female and male organs), ivory-white with bright-yellow anthers and borne on short stalks; while others may bear only staminate (male) flowers, clustered on panicles to 5 or 6 ft (1.5-1.8 m) long. There may even be monoecious plants having both male and female flowers. Some plants at certain seasons produce short-stalked male flowers, at other times perfect flowers. This change of sex may occur temporarily during high temperatures in midsummer. Some "all-male" plants occasionally bear, at the tip of the spray, small flowers with perfect pistils and these produce abnormally slender fruits. Male or hermaphrodite plants may change completely to female plants after being beheaded. Generally, the fruit is melon-like, oval to nearly round, somewhat pyriform, or elongated club-shaped, 6 to 20 in (15-50 cm) long and 4 to 8 in (10-20 cm) thick; weighing up to 20 lbs (9 kg). Semi-wild (naturalized) plants bear miniature fruits 1 to 6 in (2.5-15 cm) long. The skin is waxy and thin but fairly tough. When the fruit is green and hard it is rich in white latex. As it ripens, it becomes light- or deep-yellow externally and the thick wall of succulent flesh becomes aromatic, yellow, orange or various shades of salmon or red. It is then juicy, sweetish and somewhat like a cantaloupe in flavor; in some types quite musky. Attached lightly to the wall by soft, white, fibrous tissue, are usually numerous small, black, ovoid, corrugated, peppery seeds about 3/16 in (5 mm) long, each coated with a transparent, gelatinous aril.

Though the exact area of origin is unknown, the papaya is believed native to tropical America, perhaps in southern Mexico and
neighboring Central America. It is recorded that seeds were taken to Panama and then the Dominican Republic before 1525
and cultivation spread to warm elevations throughout South and Central America, southern Mexico, the West Indies and
Bahamas, and to Bermuda in 1616. Spaniards carried seeds to the Philippines about 1550 and the papaya traveled from there
to Malacca and India. Seeds were sent from India to Naples in 1626. Now the papaya is familiar in nearly all tropical regions
of the Old World and the Pacific Islands and has become naturalized in many areas. Seeds were probably brought to Florida
from the Bahamas. Up to about 1959, the papaya was commonly grown in southern and central Florida in home gardens and
on a small commercial scale. Thereafter, natural enemies seriously reduced the plantings. There was a similar decline in Puerto
Rico about 10 years prior to the setback of the industry in Florida. While isolated plants and a few commercial plots may be
fruitful and long-lived, plants in some fields may reach 5 or 6 ft, yield one picking of undersized and misshapen fruits and then
are so affected by virus and other diseases that they must be destroyed.

Papayas are generally grown from seed. Germination may take 3 to 5 weeks. It is expedited to 2 to 3 weeks and percentage of germination increased by washing off the aril. Then the seeds need to be dried and dusted with fungicide to avoid damping-off,
a common cause of loss of seedlings. Well-prepared seeds can be stored for as long as 3 years but the percentage of
germination declines with age. Dipping for 15 seconds in hot water at 158º F (70º C) and then soaking for 24 hrs in distilled
water after removal from storage will improve the germination rate. If germination is slow at some seasons, treatment with
gibberellic acid may be needed to get quicker results. To reproduce the characteristics of a preferred strain, air-layering has been successfully practiced on a small scale. All offshoots except the lowest one are girdled and layered after the parent plant has produced the first crop of fruit. Later, when the parent has grown too tall for convenient harvesting the top is cut off and new buds in the crown are pricked off until offshoots from the trunk appear and develop over a period of 4 to 6 weeks. These are layered and removed and the trunk cut off above the originally retained lowest sprout which is then allowed to grow as the main stem. Thereafter the layering of offshoots may be continued until the plant is exhausted.

Rooting of cuttings has been practiced in South Africa, especially to eliminate variability in certain clones so that their
performance can be more accurately compared in evaluation studies. Softwood cuttings made in midsummer rooted quickly
and fruited well the following summer. Cuttings taken in fall and spring were slow to root and deficient in root formation. The
commercial cultivar 'Honey Gold' is grown entirely from cuttings. Once rooted, the cuttings are planted in plastic bags and kept
under mist for 10 days, and then put in a shade house for hardening before setting in the field. Hawaiian workers have found that large branches 2-3 ft (60-90 cm) long rooted more readily than small cuttings. Planted 1 ft. (30 cm) deep in the rainy season, they began fruiting in a few months very close to the ground.

Pinya (Pineapple)
Scientific name:  Ananas comosus
 
The pineapple is the leading edible member of the family Bromeliaceae which embraces about 2,000 species, mostly epiphytic and many strikingly ornamental. Now known botanically as Ananas comosus Merr. (syns. A. sativus Schult. f., Ananassa sativa Lindl., Bromelia ananas L., B. comosa L.), the fruit has acquired few vernacular names. It is widely called pina by Spanish-speaking people, abacaxi in the Portuguese tongue, ananas by the Dutch and French and the people of former French and Dutch colonies; nanas in southern Asia and the East Indes. In China, it is po-lo-mah; sometimes in Jamaica, sweet pine; in Guatemala often merely "pine" .
The pineapple plant is a terrestrial herb 2 1/2 to 5 ft (.75-1.5 m) high with a spread of 3 to 4 ft (.9-1.2 m); a very short, stout stem and a rosette of waxy, straplike leaves, long-pointed, 20 to 72 in (50-180cm) 1ong; usually needle tipped and generally bearing sharp, upcurved spines on the margins.  The leaves may be all green or variously striped with red, yellow or ivory
down the middle or near the margins. At blooming time, the stem elongates and enlarges near the apex and puts forth a head of small purple or red flowers, each accompanied by a single red, yellowish or green bract. The stem continues to grow and acquires at its apex a compact tuft of stiff, short leaves called the "crown" or "top". Occasionally a plant may bear 2 or 3
heads, or as many as 12 fused together, instead of the normal one.  As individual fruits develop from the flowers they join together forming a cone shaped, compound, juicy, fleshy fruit to 12 in (30 cm) or more in height, with the stem serving as the fibrous but fairly succulent core. The tough, waxy rind, made up of hexagonal units, may be dark-green, yellow, orange-yellow or reddish when the fruit is ripe. The flesh ranges from nearly white to yellow. If the flowers are pollinated, small, hard seeds may be present, but generally one finds only traces of undeveloped seeds. Since hummingbirds are the principal pollinators, these birds are prohibited in Hawaii to avoid the development of undesired seeds. Offshoots, called "slips", emerge from the stem around the base of the fruit and shoots grow in the axils of the leaves. Suckers (aerial suckers) are shoots arising from the base of the plant at ground level; those proceeding later from the stolons beneath the soil are called basal suckers or "ratoons".

Native to southern Brazil and Paraguay (perhaps especially the Parana-Paraguay River) area where wild relatives occur, the
pineapple was apparently domesticated by the Indians and carried by them up through South and Central America to Mexico
and the West Indies long before the arrival of Europeans. Christopher Columbus and his shipmates saw the pineapple for the
first time on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and then again in Panama in 1502. Caribbean Indians placed pineapples or
pineapple crowns outside the entrances to their dwellings as symbols of friendship and hospitality. Europeans adopted the motif and the fruit was represented in carvings over doorways in Spain, England, and later in New England for many years. The plant has become naturalized in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Trinidad but the fruits of wild plants are hardly edible.

Spaniards introduced the pineapple into the Philippines and may have taken it to Hawaii and Guam early in the 16th Century.
The first sizeable plantation 5 acres (2 ha)—was established in Oahu in 1885. Portuguese traders are said to have taken seeds
to India from the Moluccas in 1548, and they also introduced the pineapple to the east and west coasts of Africa. The plant was growing in China in 1594 and in South Africa about 1655. It reached Europe in 1650 and fruits were being produced in
Holland in 1686 but trials in England were not success ful until 1712. Greenhouse culture flourished in England and France in the late 1700's. Captain Cook planted pineapples on the Society Islands, Friendly Islands and elsewhere in the South Pacific in
1777. Lutheran missionaries in Brisbane, Australia, imported plants from India in 1838. A commercial industry took form in
1924 and a modern canning plant was erected about 1946. The first plantings in Israel were made in 1938 when 200 plants
were brought from South Africa. In 1939, 1350 plants were imported from the East Indies and Australia. but the climate is not
a favorable one for this crop.

Crowns (or "tops"), slips (called nlbs or robbers in New South Wales), suckers and ratoons have all been commonly utilized for vegetative multiplication of the pineapple. To a lesser degree, some growers have used "stumps", that is, mother plant suckers that have already fruited. Seeds are desired only in breeding programs and are usually the result of hand pollination. The seeds are hard and slow to germinate. Treatment with sulfuric acid achieves germination in 10 days, but higher rates of germination (75-90 % ) and more vigorous growth of seedlings results from planting untreated seeds under intermittent mist.  The seedlings are planted when 15-18 months old and will bear fruit 16-30 months later. Vegetatively propagated plants fruit in 15-22 months.

In Queensland, tops and slips from the summer crop of 'Smooth Cayenne' are stored upside down, close together, in
semi-shade, for planting in the fall. Some producers salvage the crowns from the largest grades of fruits going through the
processing factory to be assured of high quality planting material.  South African experiments with 'Smooth Cayenne' have shown medium-size slips to be the best planting material. Next in order of yield were large crowns, medium-size suckers, medium-size crowns and large suckers. Medium and large suckers, however, fruited earlier. Trimming of basal leaves increased yields. Workers in Johore, Malaya, report, without specifying cultivar, that large crowns give highest yield and more slips, followed by small crowns, big slips, small slips, large and small suckers in descending order.

Rambutan (Rambutan)
Scientific name:  Nephelium lappaceum L. (syns. Euphoria nephelium DC.; Dimocarpus crinita Lour.)

Botanically, it is Nephelium lappaceum L. (syns. Euphoria nephelium DC.; Dimocarpus crinita Lour.).  Generally, it is called rambutan (in French, ramboutan or ramboutanier; in Dutch, ramboetan); occasionally in India, ramboostan. To the Chinese it is shao tzu, to Vietnamese, chom chom or vai thieu; to Kampucheans, ser mon, or chle sao mao. There are other local names in the various dialects of southeast Asia and the East Indies.
 
The rambutan tree reaches 50 to 80 ft (15-25 m) in height, has a straight trunk to 2 ft (60 cm) wide, and a dense, usually spreading crown. The evergreen leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, 2 3/4 to 12 in (7-30 cm) long, with reddish rachis, hairy when young, and 1 to 4 pairs of leaflets, subopposite or alternate, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, or rather obovate, sometimes oblique at the base; slightly leathery; yellowish-green to dark-green and somewhat dull on the upper surface, yellowish or bluish-green beneath; 2 to 8 in (5-20 cm) long, 1 to 4 1/3 in (2.5-11 cm) wide, the 6 to 15 pairs of principal veins prominent on the underside. The small, petalless flowers, of three kinds: males, hermaphrodite functioning as males, and hermaphrodite functioning as females, are borne in axillary or pseudo-terminal, much branched, hairy panicles. The fruit is ovoid, or ellipsoid, pinkish-red, bright-or deep-red, orange-red, maroon or dark-purple, yellowish-red, or all yellow or orange-yellow; 1 1/3 to 3 1/8 in (3.4-8 cm) long. Its thin, leathery rind is covered with tubercles from each of which extends a soft, fleshy, red, pinkish, or yellow spine 1/5 to 3/4 in (0.5-2 cm) long, the tips deciduous in some types. The hairlike covering is responsible for the common name of the fruit, which is based on the Malay word "rambut", meaning "hair". Within is the white or rose-tinted, translucent, juicy, acid, subacid or sweet flesh, 1/6 to 1/3 in (0.4-0.8 cm) thick, adhering more or less to the ovoid or oblong, somewhat flattened seed, which is 1 to 1 1/3 in (2.5-3.4 cm) long and 2/5
to 3/5 in (1-1.5 cm) wide. There may be 1 or 2 small undeveloped fruits nestled close to the stem of a mature fruit.

The rambutan is native to Malaysia and commonly cultivated throughout the archipelago and southeast Asia. Many years ago,
Arab traders introduced it into Zanzibar and Pemba. There are limited plantings in India, a few trees in Surinam, and in the
coastal lowlands of Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Cuba. Some fruits are being marketed in Costa
Rica. The rambutan was taken to the Philippines from Indonesia in 1912. Further introductions were made in 1920 (from
Indonesia) and 1930 (from Malaya), but until the 1950's its distribution was rather limited. Then popular demand brought about systematic efforts to improve the crop and resulted in the establishment of many commercial plantations in the provinces of Batangas, Cavite, Davan, Iloilo, Laguna, Oriental Mindoro and Zamboanga. Seeds were imported into the United States from
Java in 1906 (SPI #17515) but the species is not grown in this country.

The rambutan flourishes from sea-level to 1,600 or even 1,800 ft (500-600 m), in tropical, humid regions having
well-distributed rainfall. In the ideal environment of Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, the average temperature year-round is about
81º F (27.3º C), relative humidity is 82%, rainfall 71 in (180 cm)-about 165 rainy days. The dry season should not last much
over 3 months.  The tree does best on deep, clay-loam or rich sandy loam rich in organic matter, or in deep peat. It needs good drainage.  Rambutan seeds, after removal from the fruit and thorough washing, should be planted horizontally with the flattened side downward in order that the seedling will grow straight and have a normal, strong root system. Seeds will germinate in 9 to 25 days, the earlier, the more vigor in the seedling. The rate of germination of 2-day-old seeds is 87% to 95%. A week after seed removal from the fruit, there may be only 50% to 65% germination. Sun-drying for 8 hours and oven-drying at 86º F (30º C) kills seeds within a week. Washed seeds will remain viable in moist sawdust, sphagnum moss or charcoal for 3-4 weeks, and some will even sprout in storage. The juice of the flesh inhibits germination. Accordingly, unwashed seeds or seeds treated with the juice can be held for a month in moist sawdust without sprouting.   Rambutan seedlings bear in 5-6 years, but the ratio of female to male trees is 4 or 5 to 7. One Philippine seedling orchard was
found to have 67% male trees. Then, too, hardly 5% of female trees give a profitable yield. Vegetative propagation is essential.
Cuttings have been rooted experimentally under mist and with the use of growth-promoting hormones, but this technique is not
being practiced. Air-layering may at first appear successful, but many air-layers die after being transplanted into 5-gal
containers, or, later, in the field, long after separation from the mother tree.  Marching is very effective onto 5- to 9-month-old seedlings of rambutan or of pulasan (N. mutabile L.) or N. intermedium Radlk., but is a rather cumbersome procedure. After 2 or 3 months, the scion is notched 3 times over a period of 2 weeks and then severed from the parent tree. Cleft-, splice-, and side-grafting are not too satisfactory. Patch-budding is preferred as having a much greater rate of success. Seedlings for use as rootstocks are taken from the seedbed after 45 days and transplanted into 1-quart cans with a mixture of 50% cured manure and later transferred to 5 gal containers. In Oriental Mindoro Province, if the budding is done in the month of May, they can achieve 83.6% success; if done in June and July, 82%.  Budded trees flower 2 1/2 to 3 years after planting in the field.  In the Philippines, it is recommended that the trees be planted at least 33 ft (10 m) apart each way, though 40 ft (12 m) is not too much in rich soil. If the trees are set too close to each other, they will become overcrowded in a few years and production
will be seriously affected.  Philippine agronomists apply 2.2 lbs (1 kg) ammonium sulfate together with 2.2 lbs (1 kg) complete fertilizer (12-24-12) per tree immediately after harvest and give the same amount of ammonium sulfate to each tree near the end of the rainy season.  Studies in Malaya show that a harvest of 6,000 lbs/acre (6,720 kg/ha) of rambutan fruits removes from the soil 15 lbs/acre (approximately 15 kg/ha) nitrogen, 2 lbs/acre (2 kg/ha) phosphorus, 11.5 lbs/acre (11.5 kg/ha) potassium, 5.9 lbs/acre (5.9 kg/ha) calcium, and 2.67 lbs/acre (2.67 kg/ha) magnesium.  Irrigation is given as needed in dry seasons. Light pruning is done only to improve the form of the tree and strengthen it.  Rambutan trees should be sheltered from strong winds which do much damage during the flowering and fruiting periods.

In Malaya, the rambutan generally fruits twice a year, the first, main crop in June and a lesser one in December. In the
Philippines, flowering occurs from late March to early May and the fruits mature from July to October or occasionally to
November.  The entire fruit cluster is cut from the branch by harvesters. If single fruits are picked, they should be snapped off with a piece of the stem attached, so as not to rupture the rind. The fruits must be handled carefully to avoid bruising and crushing, and kept dry, cool, and well-ventilated to delay spoilage.  Generally, shoots that bear fruit one year will put out new growth and will bloom and fruit the next year, so that biennial bearing is rare in the rambutan. However, yield may vary from year to year. Individual trees 8 years old or older have borne as much as 440 lbs (200 kg) one season and only 132 lbs (60 kg) the next. In the Philippines, the average production per tree of 21 selections was 264 lbs (120 kg) over a 4-year period, while the general average is only 106 lbs (48 kg).  From 1965 to 1967, agronomists at the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, studied the growth, flowering habits and yield of the Indonesian cultivars, 'Seematjan', 'Seenjonja', and 'Maharlika'. They found that all the 'Seematjan' flowers were hermaphrodite functioning as female (h.f.f.) and that it is necessary to plant male trees with this cultivar.  'Seenjonja' and 'Maharlika' flowers were mostly h.f.f. with a very few hermaphrodite functioning as males (h.f.m.) in the same panicles, and concluded that, though self-pollination is possible, planting of male trees with these cultivars should improve production.

Sagin (Banana)
Scientific name:  Musa x paridasiaca
 
The word "banana" is a general term embracing a number of species or hybrids in the genus Musa of the family Musaceae.  Some species such as M. Basjoo Sieb. & Zucc. of Japan and M. ornata Roxb., native from Pakistan to Burma, are grown only as ornamental plants or for fiber. M. textilis Nee of the Philippines is grown only for its fiber, prized for strong ropes and also for tissue-thin tea bags. The so-called Abyssinian banana, Ensete ventricosum Cheesman, formerly E. edule Horan, Musa ensete Gmel., is cultivated in Ethiopia for fiber and for the staple foods derived from the young shoot, the base of the stem, and the corm.  Most edible-fruited bananas, usually seedless, belong to the species M. acuminata Colla (M. cavendishii Lamb. ex Paxt., M. chinensis Sweet, M. nana Auth. NOT Lour., M. zebrina Van Houtee ex Planch.), or to the hybrid M. X paradisiaca L. (M. X sapientum L.; M. acumianta X M. balbisiana Colla).  M. balbisiana Colla of southern Asia and the East Indies, bears a seedy fruit but the plant is valued for its disease-resistance and plays an important role as a "parent" in the breeding of edible bananas.

The banana plant, often erroneously referred to as a "tree", is a large herb, with succulent, very juicy stem (properly
"pseudostem") which is a cylinder of leaf-petiole sheaths, reaching a height of 20 to 25 ft (6-7.5 m) and arising from a fleshy
rhizome or corm. Suckers spring up around the main plant forming a clump or "stool'', the eldest sucker replacing the main plant when it fruits and dies, and this process of succession continues indefinitely. Tender, smooth, oblong or elliptic, fleshy-stalked
leaves, numbering 4 or 5 to 15, are arranged spirally. They unfurl, as the plant grows, at the rate of one per week in warm
weather, and extend upward and outward, becoming as much as 9 ft (2.75 m) long and 2 ft (60 cm) wide. They may be entirely green, green with maroon splotches, or green on the upperside and red purple beneath. The inflorescence, a transformed growing point, is a terminal spike shooting out from the heart in the tip of the stem. At first, it is a large, long-oval, tapering, purple-clad bud. As it opens, it is seen that the slim, nectar-rich, tubular, toothed, white flowers are clustered in whorled double rows along the floral stalk, each cluster covered by a thick, waxy, hoodlike bract, purple outside, deep-red within. Normally, the bract will lift from the first hand in 3 to 10 days. If the plant is weak, opening may not occur until 10 or 15 days. Female flowers occupy the lower 5 to 15 rows; above them may be some rows of hermaphrodite or neuter flowers; male flowers are borne in the upper rows. In some types the inflorescence remains erect but generally, shortly after opening, it begins to bend downward. In about one day after the opening of the flower clusters, the male flowers and their bracts are shed, leaving most of the upper stalk naked except at the very tip where there usually remains an unopened bud containing the last-formed of the male flowers. However, there are some mutants such as 'Dwarf Cavendish' with persistent male flowers and bracts which wither and remain, filling the space between the fruits and the terminal bud.

As the young fruits develop from the female flowers, they look like slender green fingers. The bracts are soon shed and the fully grown fruits in each cluster become a "hand" of bananas, and the stalk droops with the weight until the bunch is upside down.
The number of "hands" varies with the species and variety.  The fruit (technically a "berry") turns from deep-green to yellow or red, or, in some forms, green-and white-striped, and may range from 2 1/2 to 12 in (6.4-30 cm) in length and 3/4 to 2 in (1.9-5 cm) in width, and from oblong, cylindrical and blunt to pronouncedly 3-angled, somewhat curved and hornlike. The flesh, ivory-white to yellow or salmon-yellow, may be firm, astringent, even gummy with latex, when unripe, turning tender and slippery, or soft and mellow or rather dry and mealy or starchy when ripe. The flavor may be mild and sweet or subacid with a distinct apple tone. Wild types may be nearly filled with black, hard, rounded or angled seeds 1/8 to 5/8 in (3-16 mm) wide and have scant flesh. The common cultivated types are generally seedless with just minute vestiges of ovules visible as brown specks in the slightly hollow or faintly pithy center, especially when the fruit is overripe. Occasionally, cross-pollination by wild types will result in a number of seeds in a normally seedless variety such as 'Gros Michel', but never in the Cavendish type.
.
Bananas and plantains are today grown in every humid tropical region and constitute the 4th largest fruit crop of the world, following the grape, citrus fruits and the apple. World production is estimated to be 28 million tons—65% from Latin America, 27 % from Southeast Asia, and 7 % from Africa. One-fifth of the crop is exported to Europe, Canada, the United States and Japan as fresh fruit. India is the leading banana producer in Asia. The crop from 400,000 acres (161,878 ha) is entirely for domestic consumption. Indonesia produces over 2 million tons annually, the Philippines about 1/2 million tons, exporting mostly to Japan. Taiwan raises over 1/2 million tons for export. Tropical Africa (principally the Ivory Coast and Somalia) grows nearly 9 million tons of bananas each year and exports large quantities to Europe.

 'Pisang masak hijau', or 'Bungulan', the triploid Cavendish clone of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaya, is erroneously
called 'Lacatan' in Jamaica where it replaced 'Gros Michel' because of its immunity to Panama disease, though it is subject to
Sigatoka (leaf spot). The plant is tall and slender and prone to wind injury. Its fruits ripen unevenly in winter, bruise easily and
are inclined to spoil in storage. It is no longer grown commercially in Jamaica and the Windward Islands. The fruits are used
usually as cooking bananas in Jamaican households. Simmonds declares this cultivar is not the true 'Lacatan' of the Philippines. He suggested that 'Pisang masak hijau' may have been the primary source of all the members of the Cavendish group.

Banana seeds are employed for propagation only in breeding programs. Corms are customarily used for planting and Mexican
studies with 'Giant Cavendish' have shown that those over 17.5 lbs (8 kg) in weight come into bearing early and, in the first
year, the bunches are longer, heavier, with more hands than those produced from smaller corms. From the second year on, the
advantage disappears. Most growers prefer "bits" 2- to 4-lb (0.9-1.8 kg) sections of the corm. When corms are scarce, smaller sections—1 to 2 lbs (454-908 g) have been utilized and early fertilization applied to compensate for the smaller size. But in Queensland it is specified that "bits" of 'Dwarf Cavendish' shall not be less than 4 x 3 x 3 in (10 x 7.5 x 7.5 cm) and "bits" of 'Lady Finger' and other tall cultivars shall be not less than 5 x 5 x 3 1/2 in ( 12.5 x 12.5 x 9 cm). The corm has a number of buds, or "eyes", which develop into new shoots. The two upper buds are the youngest and have a pinkish tint. These develop rapidly and become vigorous plants. To obtain the "bits", a selected, healthy banana plant, at least 7 months old but prior to fruiting, is uprooted and cut off about 4 to 5 in (10-12.5 cm) above the corm. The outer layer of leaf bases is peeled off to expose the buds, leaving just a little to protect the buds during handling and transport. The corm is split between the 2 upper
buds and trimmed with square sides, removing the lower, inferior buds and any parts affected by pests or disease, usually
indicated by discoloration. Then the "bits" are fumigated by immersing for 20 minutes in hot water at about 130°F (54.44°C) or in a commercial nematicide solution. Sometimes it is advisable to apply a fungicide to prevent spoilage.

The sucker first emerges as a conical shoot which opens and releases leaves that are mostly midribs with only vestiges of blade. These juvenile leaves are called "sword", "spear", or "arrow", leaves. Just before the sucker produces wide leaves resembling
those of the mature plant but smaller, it has sufficient corm development to be transplanted. Sometimes suckers from old,
deteriorating corms have broad leaves from the outset. These are called "water" suckers, are insubstantial, with very little vigor,
and are not desirable propagating material. "Maiden" suckers that have passed the "sword"-leaved stage and have developed
broad leaves must be large to be acceptably productive. In banana trials at West Bengal, India, suckers 3 to 4 months old with
well-developed rhizomes proved to be the best yielders. In comparison, small, medium, or large "sword" suckers develop
thicker stems, and give much higher yields of marketable fruits per land parcel. "Bits' grow slowly at first, but in 2 years' time
they catch up to plants grown from suckers or "butts" and are much more economical. "Butts" (entire corms, or rhizomes, of
mature plants), called "bull heads" in the Windward Islands, are best used to fill in vacancies in a plantation. For quick
production, some farmers will use "butts" with several "sword" suckers attached. Very young suckers, called "peepers", are
utilized only for establishing nurseries.

Instead of waiting for normal sucker development, multiplication has been artificially stimulated in the field by removing the soil
and outer leaf sheaths covering the upper buds of the corm, packing soil around them and harvesting them when they have
reached the "sword' sucker stage. A greenhouse technique involves cleaning and injuring a corm to induce callus formation from which many new plants will develop. As many as 180 plantlets have been derived from one corm in this manner.

Sampaluk (Tamarind)
Scientific name:  Tamarindus indica
 
Of all the fruit trees of the tropics, none is more widely distributed nor more appreciated as an ornamental than the tamarind, Tamarindus indica L. (syns. T. occidentalis Gaertn.; T. officinalis Hook.), of the family Leguminosae. Most of its colloquial names are variations on the common English term. In Spanish and Portuguese, it is tamarindo; in French, tamarin, tamarinier, tamarinier des Indes, or tamarindier; in Dutch and German, tamarinde; in Italian, tamarandizio; in Papiamiento of the Lesser Antilles, tamarijn. In the Virgin Islands, it is sometimes called taman; in the Philippines, sampalok or various other dialectal names; in Malaya, asam jawa; in India, it is tamarind or ambli, imli, chinch, etc.; in Cambodia, it is ampil or khoua me; in Laos, mak kham; in Thailand, ma-kharm; in Vietnam, me. The name "tamarind" with a qualifying adjective is often applied to other members of the family Leguminosae having somewhat similar foliage.

The tamarind, a slow-growing, long-lived, massive tree reaches, under favorable conditions, a height of 80 or even 100 ft (24-30 m), and may attain a spread of 40 ft (12 m) and a trunk circumference of 25 ft (7.5 m). It is highly wind-resistant, with strong, supple branches, gracefully drooping at the ends, and has dark-gray, rough, fissured bark. The mass of bright-green, fine, feathery foliage is composed of pinnate leaves, 3 to 6 in (7.5-15 cm) in length, each having 10 to 20 pairs of oblong leaflets 1/2 to 1 in (1.25-2.5 cm) long and 1/5 to 1/4 in (5-6 mm) wide, which fold at night.  The leaves are normally evergreen but may be shed briefly in very dry areas during the hot season. Inconspicuous, inch-wide flowers, borne in small racemes, are 5-petalled (2 reduced to bristles), yellow with orange or red streaks. The flowerbuds are distinctly pink due to the outer color of the 4 sepals which are shed when the flower opens.  The fruits, flattish, beanlike, irregularly curved and bulged pods, are borne in great abundance along the new branches and usually vary from 2 to 7 in long and from 3/4 to 1 1/4 in (2-3.2 cm) in diameter. Exceptionally large tamarinds have been found on individual trees. The pods may be cinnamon-brown or grayish-brown externally and, at first, are tender-skinned with green, highly acid flesh and soft, whitish, under-developed seeds. As they mature, the pods fill out somewhat and the juicy, acidulous pulp turns brown or reddish-brown. Thereafter, the skin becomes a brittle, easily-cracked shell and the pulp dehydrates naturally to a sticky paste enclosed by a few coarse strands of fiber extending lengthwise from the stalk. The 1 to 12 fully formed seeds are hard, glossy-brown, squarish in form, 1/8 to 1/2 in (1.1-1.25 cm) in diameter, and each is enclosed in a parchmentlike membrane.

Native to tropical Africa, the tree grows wild throughout the Sudan and was so long ago introduced into and adopted in India
that it has often been reported as indigenous there also, and it was apparently from this Asiatic country that it reached the
Persians and the Arabs who called it "tamar hindi" (Indian date, from the date-like appearance of the dried pulp), giving rise
to both its common and generic names. Unfortunately, the specific name, "indica", also perpetuates the illusion of Indian origin.
The fruit was well known to the ancient Egyptians and to the Greeks in the 4th Century B.C.  The tree has long been naturalized in the East Indies and the islands of the Pacific. One of the first tamarind trees in Hawaii was planted in 1797. The tamarind was certainly introduced into tropical America, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the West Indies much earlier. In all tropical and near-tropical areas, including South Florida, it is grown as a shade and fruit tree, along roadsides and in dooryards and parks. Mexico has over 10,000 acres (4,440 ha) of tamarinds, mostly in the states of Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Oaxaca and Veracruz. In the lower Motagua Valley of Guatemala, there are so many large tamarind trees in one area that it is called "El Tamarindal". There are commercial plantings in Belize and other Central American countries and in northern Brazil. In India there are extensive tamarind orchards producing 275,500 tons (250,000 MT) annually. The pulp is marketed in northern Malaya and to some extent wherever the tree is found even if there are no plantations.

Tamarind seeds remain viable for months, will germinate in a week after planting. In the past, propagation has been customarily
by seed sown in position, with thorny branches protecting the young seedlings. However, today, young trees are usually grown
in nurseries. And there is intensified interest in vegetative propagation of selected varieties because of the commercial potential
of tamarind products. The tree can be grown easily from cuttings, or by shield-budding, side-veneer grafting, or air-layering.

Santol (Santol)
Scientific names:  Sandoricum koetjape Merr.; Sandoricum indicum Cav.
                           Sandoricum nervosum Blume; Melia koetjape Burm. f.
 
Perhaps the only important edible fruit in the family Meliaceae, the santol, Sandoricum koetjape Merr. (syns. S. indicum Cav., S. nervosum Blume, Melia koetjape Burm. f.), is also known as sentieh, sentol, setol, sentul, setul, setui, kechapi or ketapi, in Malaya; saton, satawn, katon, or ka-thon in Thailand; kompem reach in Cambodia; tong in Laos; sau chua, sau tia, sau do, mangoustanier sauvage, or faux mangoustanier in North Vietnam. In the Philippines, it is santol; in Indonesia, ketjapi or sentool; on Sarawak and Brunei, it is klampu. In India, it may be called sayai, sevai, sevamanu or visayan. In Guam, it is santor or wild mangosteen.  The santol is a fast-growing, straight-trunked, pale-barked tree 50 to 150 ft (15-45 m) tall, branched close to the ground and buttressed when old.  Young
branchlets are densely brown-hairy. The evergreen, or very briefly deciduous, spirally-arranged leaves are compound, with 3 leaflets, elliptic to oblong-ovate, 4 to 10 in (20-25 cm) long, blunt at the base and pointed at the apex. The greenish, yellowish, or pinkish-yellow, 5-petalled flowers, about 3/8 in (1 cm) long are borne on the young branchlets in loose, stalked panicles 6 to 12 in (15-30 cm) in length. The fruit (technically a capsule) is globose or oblate, with wrinkles extending a short distance from the base; 1 1/2 to 3 in (4-7.5 cm) wide; yellowish to golden, sometimes blushed with pink. The downy rind may be thin or thick and contains a thin, milky juice. It is edible, as is the white, translucent, juicy pulp (aril), sweet, subacid or sour, surrounding the 3 to 5 brown, inedible seeds which are up to 3/4 in (2 cm) long, tightly clinging or sometimes free from the pulp.  The santol is believed native to former Indochina (especially Cambodia and southern Laos) and Malaya, and to have been long ago introduced into India, the Andaman Islands, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Moluccas, Mauritius, and the Philippines where it has become naturalized. It is commonly cultivated throughout these regions and the fruits are abundant in the local markets. The santol is reproduced by seeds, air-layering, inarching, or by budding onto self rootstocks.

The fruit is usually consumed raw without peeling. In India, it is eaten with spices. With the seeds removed, it is made into jam or jelly. Pared and quartered, it is cooked in sirup and preserved in jars. Young fruits are candied in Malaysia by paring, removing the seeds, boiling in water, then boiling a second time with sugar. In the Philippines, santols are peeled chemically by dipping in hot water for 2 minutes or more, then into a lye solution at 200º F (93.33º C) for 3 to 5 minutes. Subsequent washing in cool water removes the outer skin. Then the fruits are cut open, seeded and commercially preserved in sirup. Santol marmalade in glass jars is exported from the Philippines to Oriental food dealers in the United States and probably elsewhere. Very ripe fruits are naturally vinous and are fermented with rice to make an alcoholic drink.

Sapote (Black Sapote)
Scientific name:  Diospyros digyna Jacq.
 
The black sapote is not allied to either the sapote (Pouteria sapota H.E. Moore & Stearn) or the white sapote (Casimiroa edulis Llave & Lex.). Instead, it is closely related to the persimmon in the family Ebenaceae. For many years it has been widely misidentified as Diospyros ebenaster Retz., a name confusingly applied also to a strictly wild species of the West Indies now distinguished as D. revoluta Poir. The presently accepted binomial for the black sapote is D. digyna Jacq. (syn. D. obtusifolia Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.). 

In Spanish, it is known variously as sapote, sapote negro, zapote, zapote negro, zapote prieto, zapote de mico, matasano (or matazano) de mico, or ebano. It has been called black persimmon in Hawaii.

The tree is handsome, broad-topped, slow-growing, to 80 ft (25 m) in height, with furrowed trunk to 30 in (75 cm) in diameter, and black bark.  The evergreen, alternate leaves, elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, tapered at both ends or rounded at the base and bluntly acute at the apex, are leathery, glossy, 4 to 12 in (10-30 cm) long. The flowers, borne singly or in groups of 3 to 7 in the leaf axils, are tubular, lobed, white, 3/8 to 5/8 in (1-1.6 cm) wide, with persistent green calyx. Some have both male and female organs, large calyx lobes and are faintly fragrant; others are solely male and have a pronounced gardenia-like scent and a few black specks in the throat of the corolla. The fruit is bright-green and shiny at first; oblate or nearly round; 2 to 5 in (5-12.5 cm) wide; with a prominent, 4-lobed, undulate calyx, 1 1/2 to 2 in (4-5 cm) across, clasping the base. On ripening, the smooth, thin skin becomes olive-green and then rather muddy-green. Within is a mass of glossy, brown to very dark-brown,
almost black, somewhat jelly-like pulp, soft, sweet and mild in flavor. In the center, there may be 1 to 10 flat, smooth, brown seeds, 3/4 to 1 in (2-2.5 cm) long, but the fruits are often seedless.

The black sapote is native along both coasts of Mexico from Jalisco to Chiapas, Veracruz and Yucatan and in the forested
lowlands of Central America, and it is frequently cultivated throughout this range. It was apparently carried by the Spaniards to
Amboina before 1692, and to the Philippines long before 1776, and eventually reached Malacca, Mauritius, Hawaii, Brazil,
Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. In 1919, seeds from Guadalajara, Mexico, were sent to the Bureau of Plant
Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture; cuttings and seeds were received from the Isle of Pines, Cuba, in
1915; seeds arrived from Hawaii in 1916 and 1917; others from Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1920. Numerous seedlings have been
grown in southern California but all have been killed by low temperatures. The tree does very well in southern Florida, though it has been grown mainly as a curiosity. Outside of its homeland, the fruit has not achieved any great popularity. In Mexico, the
fruits are regularly marketed.  In the Philippines, the seeded pulp is served as dessert with a little milk or orange juice poured over it. The addition of lemon or lime juice makes the pulp desirable as a filling for pies and other pastry. It is also made into ice cream.

The black sapote is usually grown from seeds, which remain viable for several months in dry storage and germinate in about 30
days after planting in flats. Vegetative propagation is not commonly practiced but the tree has been successfully air-layered and
also shield-budded using mature scions.  Seedlings are best transplanted to pots when about 3 in (7.5 cm) high and they are set in the field when 1 to 2 years old, at which time they are 1 to 2 ft (30-60 cm) in height. They should be spaced at least 40 ft (12 m) apart. Most begin to bear in 5 to 6 years but some trees may take somewhat longer. The tree is naturally vigorous and receives little or no cultural attention in Florida though it has been noted that it benefits from fertilization.

The crushed bark and leaves are applied as a blistering poultice in the Philippines. In Yucatan, the leaf decoction is employed as an astringent and is taken internally as a febrifuge. Various preparations are used against leprosy, ringworm and itching skin conditions.

Saresa (Jamaica Cherry) (also called Ratiles)
Scientific name:  Muntingia calabura L.
 
The Jamaica cherry, Muntingia calabura L., is a member of the family Elaeocarpaceae. It has acquired a wide assortment of vernacular names, among them capuli or capulin which are better limited to Prunus salicifolia (q.v.). In Florida, it has been nicknamed strawberry tree because its blooms resemble strawberry blossoms, but strawberry tree is a well-established name for the European ornamental and fruit tree, Arbutus unedo L., often cultivated in the western and southern United States, and should not be transferred to the Jamaica cherry.  In Mexico, local names for the latter are capolin, palman, bersilana, jonote and puan; in Guatemala and Costa Rica, Muntingia calabura is called capulin blanco; in El Salvador, capulin de comer; in Panama, pasito or majagüillo; in Colombia,
chitató, majagüito, chirriador, acuruco, tapabotija and nigua; in Venezuela, majagua, majaguillo, mahaujo,  guácimo hembra, cedrillo, niguo, niguito; in Ecuador, nigüito; in Peru, bolina, iumanasa, yumanaza, guinda yunanasa, or mullacahuayo; in Brazil, calabura or pau de seda; in Argentina, cedrillo majagua; in Cuba, capulina, chapuli; in Haiti, bois d' orme; bois de soie marron; in the Dominican Republic, memiso or memizo; in Guadeloupe, bois ramier or bois de soie; in the Philippines, datiles, ratiles, latires, cereza or saresa; in Thailand, takop farang or ta kob farang; in Cambodia, kakhop; in Vietnam, cay trung ca; in Malaya, buah cheri; kerukup siam or Japanese cherry; in India, Chinese cherry or Japanese cherry; in Ceylon, jam fruit.

This is a very fast-growing tree of slender proportions, reaching 25 to 40 ft (7.5-12 in) in height, with spreading, nearly horizontal branches. The leaves are evergreen, alternate, lanceolate or oblong, long-pointed at the apex, oblique at the base; 2 to 5 in (5-12.5 cm) long, dark-green and minutely hairy on the upper surface, gray- or brown-hairy on the underside; and irregularly toothed. The flowers, borne singly or in 2's or 3's in the leaf axils, are 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) wide with 5 green sepals and 5 white petals and many prominent yellow stamens. They last only one day, the petals falling in the afternoon. The abundant fruits are round, 3/8 to 1/2 in (1-1.25 cm) wide, with red or sometimes yellow, smooth, thin, tender skin and light-brown, soft, juicy pulp, with very sweet, musky, somewhat fig-like flavor, filled with exceedingly minute, yellowish seeds, too fine to be noticed in eating.

The Jamaica cherry is indigenous to southern Mexico, Central America, tropical South America, the Greater Antilles, St. Vincent and Trinidad. The type specimen was collected in Jamaica. It is widely cultivated in warm areas of the New World and in India, southeast Asia, Malaya, Indonesia, and the Philippines, in many places so thoroughly naturalized that it is thought by the local people to be native. Macmillan says that it was first planted in Ceylon about 1912. Several trees were introduced into Hawaii by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1922. Dr. David Fairchild collected seeds of a yellow-fruited form in the Peradeniya. Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, in 1926 (S.P.I. #67936). The tree has been grown in southern Florida for its fruits and as quick shade for nursery plants. It is seldom planted at present. Volunteers from bird-distributed seeds spring up in disturbed hammocks and pinelands. The author supplied seeds requested by the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute, Kihuyu, in 1982. The Jamaica cherry is said to grow better than any other tree in the polluted air of Metropolitan Manila. It runs wild on denuded mountainsides and on cliffs and is being evaluated for reforestation in the Philippines where other trees have failed to grow and also for wildlife sanctuaries since birds and bats are partial to the fruits.

The fruits are sold in Mexican markets. In Brazil, they are considered too small to be of commercial value but it is recommended that the tree be planted on river banks so that the abundance of flowers and fruits falling into the water will serve as bait, attracting fish for the benefit of fishermen. In Malaya, the tree is considered a nuisance in the home garden because fruit-bats consume the fruits and then spend the day under the eaves of houses and disfigure the porch and terrace with their pink, seedy droppings.

Brazilian planters sow directly into the field fresh seeds mixed with the sweet juice of the fruit. To prepare seeds for future
planting, water is added repeatedly to the squeezed-out seeds and juice and, as the seeds sink to the bottom of the container, the water is poured off several times until the seeds are clean enough for drying in the shade. Wherever it grows, fruits are borne nearly all year, though flowering and fruiting are interrupted in Florida and Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the 4 coolest months. Ripe fruits can easily be shaken from the branches and caught on cloth or plastic sheets.

Sarguelas (Purple or red mombin or Spanish plum)
Scientific name:  Spondias purpurea L.
 
One of the most popular small fruits of the American tropics, the purple mombin, Spondias Purpurea L., has acquired many other colloquial names: in English, red mombin, Spanish plum, hog plum, scarlet plum; purple plum in the Virgin Islands; Jamaica plum in Trinidad; Chile plum in Barbados; wild plum in Costa Rica and Panama; red plum, as well as noba and makka pruim in the Netherlands Antilles. Spanish names include: ajuela ciruela; chiabal; cirguelo; ciruela; ciruela agria; ciruela calentana; ciruela campechana; ciruela colorada; ciruela de coyote; ciruela de hueso; ciruela del país; ciruela de Mexico; ciruela morada; ciruela roja; ciruela sanjuanera; hobo; hobo colorado; ismoyo; jobillo; jobito; jobo; jobo colorado; jobo francés; jocote; jocote agrio; jocote amarillo (yellow form); jocote común; jocote de corona; jocote de iguana; jocote iguanero; jocote tronador; jocotillo; pitarillo; sineguelas or sarguelas (Philippines); sismoyo. In Portuguese, it is called ambu; ambuzeiro; ameixa da Espanha; cajá vermelha (yellow form); ciriguela; ciroela; imbu; imbuzeiro; umbu, or umbuzeiro. In French, it is cirouelle, mombin rouge, prune du Chili, prune d'Espagne, prune jaune (yellow form) or prune rouge. 

The deciduous, alternate, compound leaves bright-red or purple when young; 4 3/4 to 10 in (12-25 cm) long when mature; have 5 to 19 nearly sessile, obovate to lanceolate or oblong-elliptic leaflets 3/4 to 1 1/2 in 

(2-4 cm) long; oblique toward the base and faintly toothed toward the apex. The tiny, 4- to 5-petalled flowers, male, female and bisexual, are red or purple and borne in short, hairy panicles along the branches before the leaves appear.
Somewhat plumlike, the fruits, borne singly or in groups of 2 or 3, may be purple, dark-or bright-red, orange, yellow, or red-and-yellow. They vary from 1 to 2 in (2.5-5 cm) in length and may be oblong, oval, obovoid or pear-shaped, with small indentations and often a knob at the apex. The skin is glossy and firm; the flesh aromatic, yellow, fibrous, very juicy, with a rich, plum-like, subacid to acid flavor, sometimes a trifle turpentiney; and it adheres to the rough, fibrous, hard, oblong, knobby, thick, pale stone, which is 1/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) long and contains up to 5 small seeds.

The purple mombin is native from southern Mexico through northern Peru and Brazil, particularly in and zones. Spanish explorers carried this species to the Philippines, where it has been widely adopted. The tree is naturalized throughout much of Nigeria and occasionally cultivated for its fruit. It has been infrequently planted in southern Florida, mainly as a curiosity. The tree is tropical, ranging from sea-level to 5,500 or 6,000 ft (1,700-1,800 m) in Mexico and Central America; to 2,500 ft (760 m) in Jamaica, in either dry or humid regions. It flowers but does not fruit in Israel; is cold-sensitive in Florida.  It is grown very easily and quickly by setting large cuttings upright in the ground. It is one of the trees most used to create "living fences". It grows very slowly from seed.  There are flowers and fruits of the red form nearly all year in Jamaica, but mainly in July and August, while the yellow variant fruits only from September to November. In the Bahamas, the fruiting season of the red type is brief, just May and June; the yellow ripens from August to early October.

In Mexico, the fruits are regarded as diuretic and antispasmodic. The fruit decoction is used to bathe wounds and heal sores in the mouth. A sirup prepared from the fruit is taken to overcome chronic diarrhea. The astringent bark decoction is a remedy for mange, ulcers, dysentery and for bloating caused by intestinal gas in infants. In the Philippines, the sap of the bark is used to treat stomatitis in infants.  The juice of the fresh leaves is a remedy for thrush. A decoction of the leaves and bark is employed as a febrifuge. In southwestern Nigeria, an infusion of shredded leaves is valued for washing cuts, sores and burns. Researchers at the University of Ife have found that an aqueous extract of the leaves has antibacterial action, and an alcoholic extract is even more effective. The gum-resin of the tree is blended with pineapple or soursop juice for treating jaundice. Most of the other uses indicate that the fruits, leaves and bark are fairly rich in tannin.

Sua (Pummelo)
Scientific name:  Citrus maxima
 
This, the largest citrus fruit, is known in the western world mainly as the principal ancestor of the grapefruit. As a luscious food, it is famous in its own right in its homeland, the Far East.  Botanically it is identified as Citrus maxima Merr., (C. grandis Osbeck; C. decumana L.). The common name is derived from the Dutch pompelmoes, which is rendered pompelmus or pampelmus in German, pamplemousse in French. An alternate vernacular name, shaddock, now little used, was acquired on its entry into the Western Hemisphere as related below.  The current Malayan names are limau abong, limau betawi, limau bali, limau besar, limau bol, limau jambua, Bali lemon, and pomelo.
The pummelo is native to southeastern Asia and all of Malaysia; grows wild on river banks in the Fiji and Friendly Islands. It
may have been introduced into China around 100 B.C. It is much cultivated in southern China (Kwang-tung, Kwangsi and
Fukien Provinces) and especially in southern Thailand on the banks to the Tha Chine River; also in Taiwan and southernmost
Japan, southern India, Malaya, Indonesia, New Guinea and Tahiti. The first seeds are believed to have been brought to the
New World late in the 17th Century by a Captain Shaddock who stopped at Barbados on his way to England. By 1696, the
fruit was being cultivated in Barbados and Jamaica. Dr. David Fairchild was enthusiastic about the first pummelo he tasted,
aboard ship between Batavia and Singapore in 1899. In 1902, the United States Department of Agriculture obtained several
plants from Thailand (S.P.I. Nos. 9017, 9018, 9019). Only one (No. 9017) survived and was planted in the agricultural
greenhouse in Washington, and budwood from it was sent to Florida, California, Puerto Rico, Cuba (the Isle of Pines), and
Trinidad. When the trees fruited, the flavor and general quality were inferior and aroused no enthusiasm. Other introductions
were attempted in 1911 but all the plants died in transit. In 1913, a horticulturist of the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture was
given the assignment of collecting the best types of pummelos in Thailand. He shipped to San Francisco one tree of a 'Bangkok' type that had been introduced into the Philippines in 1912; it was planted in the greenhouse of the Plant Introduction Garden at
Chico. When it fruited several years later, the fruit was of such poor quality that it was considered useless. However, budwood
was sent to Riverside and grafted onto two grapefruit trees growing on sour orange rootstock. One of the trees died but the
other bore high-quality fruits which were much admired. Budwood was sent to different locations in Florida. In 1919, two trees of a superior pummelo (possibly 'Hao Phuang') from Thailand, which had been doing well in the Philippines, were shipped to the United States Quarantine Station in Bethesda, Maryland, and one of these survived. In addition, seeds from Thailand and from fruits in Chinese markets had been sent to Washington and seedlings were growing in greenhouses.

Though the seeds of the pummelo are monoembryonic, seedlings usually differ little from their parents and therefore most
pummelos in the Orient are grown from seed. The seeds can be stored for 80 days at 41º F(5º C) and 56-58% relative
humidity. Only the best varieties are vegetatively propagated-traditionally by air-layering but more modernly by budding onto
rootstocks of pummelo, 'King' or 'Cleopatra' mandarin, rough lemon, or Rangpur lime. In experimental work in the United
States, the "T", or shield-budding, method has been found most satisfactory.

The pomelo is eaten by peeling it, skinning the segments, and eating the juicy pulp. The skinned segments can be broken apart and used in salads and desserts or made into preserves. The extracted juice is an excellent beverage. The peel can be candied.  Like that of other citrus fruits, the peel of the pummelo contains skin irritants, mainly limonene and terpene, also citral, aldehydes, geraniol, cadinene and linalool, which may cause dermatitis in individuals having excessive contact with the oil of the outer peel. Harvesters, workers in processing factories, and housewives may develop chronic conditions on the fingers and hands.   In the Philippines and Southeast Asia, decoctions of the leaves, flowers, and rind are given for their sedative effect in cases of epilepsy, chorea and convulsive coughing. The hot leaf decoction is applied on swellings and ulcers. The fruit juice is taken as a febrifuge. The seeds are employed against coughs, dyspepsia and lumbago. Gum that exudes from declining trees is collected and taken as a cough remedy in Brazil.


Tsesa (Canistel)
Scientific name:  Pouteria campechiana Baehni
 
It is the showiest fruit of the family Sapotaceae but generally underevaluated in horticultural literature and by those who have only a casual acquaintance with it.  Colloquial names applied to this species include: egg-fruit, canistel, ti-es, yellow sapote (Cuba, Hawaii, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Florida); canistel, siguapa, zapotillo (Costa Rica); costiczapotl, custiczapotl fruta de huevo, zapote amarillo (Colombia); cakixo, canizte, kanis, kaniste, hantzé, kantez, limoncillo, mamee ciruela, zapotillo de montana (Guatemala); huevo vegetal (Puerto Rico, Venezuela); mammee sapota, eggfruit, ti-es (Bahamas); mamey cerera, mamey cerilla, mamee ciruela, kanizte (Belize); atzapotl (the fruit), atzapolquahuitl (the tree), caca de niño, cozticzapotl, cucumu, mamey de Campechi, mamey de Cartagena, huicumo, huicon, kan 'iste', kanixte, kanizte, palo huicon, zapote amarillo, zapote de niño, zubul (Mexico); guaicume, guicume, zapotillo, zapotillo amarillo (El Salvador); zapote amarillo (Nicaragua); boracho, canistel, tsesa (Philippines). 

The canistel tree is erect and generally no more than 25 ft (8 m) tall, but it may, in favorable situations, reach height of 90 to 100 ft (27-30 m) and the trunk may attain diameter of 3 ft (1 m). Slender in habit or with a spreading crown, it has brown, furrowed bark and abundant white, gummy latex.  Young branches are velvety brown. The evergreen leaves, alternate but mostly grouped at the branch tips, are relatively thin, glossy, short- to long-stemmed, oblanceolate, lanceolate-oblong, or obovate, bluntly pointed at the apex, more sharply tapered at the base; 4 1/2 to 11 in (11.25-28 cm) long, 1 1/2 to 3 in (4-7.5 cm) wide. Fragrant, bisexual flowers, solitary or in small clusters, are borne in the leaf axils or at leafless nodes on slender pedicels. They are 5- or 6-lobed, cream-colored, silky-hairy, about 5/16 to 7/16 in (8-11 mm) long.

The fruit, extremely variable in form and size, may be nearly round, with or without a pointed apex or curved beak, or may be
somewhat oval, ovoid, or spindle-shaped. It is often bulged on one side and there is a 5-pointed calyx at the base which may be rounded or with a distinct depression. Length varies from 3 to 5 in (7.5-12.5 cm) and width from 2 to 3 in (5-7.5 cm), except in the shrubby form, var. palmeri, called huicon–4 to 9 ft (1.5-3 m) high–which has nearly round fruits only 1 in (2.5 cm) long. When unripe the fruit is green-skinned, hard and gummy internally. On ripening, the skin turns lemon-yellow, golden-yellow or pale orange-yellow, is very smooth and glossy except where occasionally coated with light-brown or reddish-brown russetting.   Immediately beneath the skin the yellow flesh is relatively firm and mealy with a few fine fibers. Toward the center of the fruit it  is softer and more pasty. It has been often likened in texture to the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. The flavor is sweet, more or less musky, and somewhat like that of a baked sweet potato. There may be 1 to 4 hard, freestone seeds, 1/4 to 2 1/8 in (2-5.3 cm) long and 1/2 to 1 1/4 in (1.25-3.2 cm) wide, near-oval or oblong-oval, glossy and chestnut-brown except for the straight or curved ventral side which is dull light-brown, tan or grayish-white. Both ends are sharp-tipped.

The canistel is sometimes erroneously recorded as native to northern South America where related, somewhat similar species are indigenous. Apparently, it occurs wild only in southern Mexico (including Yucatan), Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador. It is cultivated in these countries and in Costa Rica (where it has never been found wild), Nicaragua and Panama, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba (where it is most popular and commercialized in Pinar del Rio), the Bahamas, southern Florida and the Florida Keys.  The canistel is included in experimental collections in Venezuela. The tree was introduced at low and medium elevations in the Philippines before 1924 and it reached Hawaii probably around the same time. Attempts to grow it in Singapore were not successful. In 1949 there were a few canistel trees growing in East Africa.

Canistel seeds lose viability quickly and should be planted within a few days after removal from the fruit. If decorticated, seeds
will germinate within 2 weeks; otherwise there may be a delay of 3 to 5 months before they sprout. The seedlings grow rapidly
and begin to bear in 3 to 6 years. There is considerable variation in yield and in size and quality of fruits. Vegetative propagation is preferred in order to hasten bearing and to reproduce the best selections. Side-veneer grafting, cleft grafting, patch budding
and air-layering are usually successful. Cuttings take a long time to root.

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Date created: July 29, 1997
Date last Updated: March 10, 2002

 Armando A.B. Regala
email: mandy@emailko.com