Fruits
Origin of Bananas
Most areas of Papua New Guinea have bananas. Some people have them as their main staple food while in other areas they are just a snack food. There is a very large amount of variation within the banana varieties in…
Baobab seeds and pulp porridge
Baobab seeds and vine roots are staple foods for remotely living Hadza in Tanzania. This article already presented the collection and preparation of vine roots. In the following, we will discuss how to prepare Baobab seeds and their surrounding dry…
Tu-Lip trees in Papua New Guinea
Tok Pisin: Tu lip; Scientific name: Gnetum gnemon What does a tu-lip tree look like? It is a small tree often only 8-10 metres high. It is a fairly straight tree with one trunk that has branches spread out along…
Hog plums for food
Spondias mombin (Anacardiaceae); Common names: Mungyenge (Kongo), Hog plums Description A tree which grows to 25 m. Flowering occurs during the dry season. Fruiting of hog plums starts after about 5 years though cuttings may produce earlier. The tree has…
Ambarella fruit in the Mekong Delta
Ambarella fruit (Spondias dulcis Parkinson; syn.: Spondias cytherea) is native to Melanesia and Polynesia and was introduced worldwide throughout the tropics. Its other common English names are Jew plum and Golden apple. In the Mekong Delta, it is omnipresent in…
Rattan fruits in Siberut jungles
Rattan fruits are available throughout the year in all Southeast Asian rainforests. There are about 600 different species of rattans, and many of them bear edible fruits. However, rattan prickles are a common nuisance when walking in the jungle. Nevertheless,…
Mangrove apples at the Mekong Delta
Mangrove apples are the fruits of Sonneratia sp. trees, one of the important genera of trees in the Mangrove forests of Southeast Asia. All species of Sonneratia will develop edible Mangrove apples. The various Sonneratia species differ slightly in shape,…
Raphia sese – a very special Raphia palm
Raphia sese (Arecaceae) Common names: Nsaku (Kongo = knife with a long blade), ba di magangu (Kongo). Description A palm which grows in dense clumps up to 10 m tall. Female flowers are produced at the base and male flowers…
Wild Karuka and another pandanus fruit species
The Pandanaceae botanical family comprises the following six species in Papua New Guinea: ‘Karuka’ and ‘Marita’ were already discussed on this website in two former articles. ‘Karuka’, see here, and ‘Marita’ see there. In the following, ‘Wild Karuka’ and Pandanus…
Karuka – cultivated pandanus fruits and nuts
Tok Pisin: Karuka Scientific name: Pandanus jiulianettii Two species of pandanus are commonly used for the nuts that are eaten. They are Karuka (Pandanus jiulianettii Martelli) and wild Karuka (Pandanus brosimos Merr & Perry). At least 3 other species of…
Marita – a lesser known pandanus fruit
English names: Marita or ‘Red Fruit’ Tok pisin name: Marita Bahasa Indonesia name: Buah Merah Scientific name: Pandanus conoideus Lamarck The marita pandanus plant A short much branched screw pine with many prop roots. The prop roots have prickles. Trees…
Sweet ‘White Berry Bush’ fruits
Synonyms White Berry bush, Snowball bush (Eng.); Witbessiesbos (Afrikaans); Chinese waterberry (China), Goowal (Yawuru Australia); Flueggea virosa (Lat.) – Flügge was a German botanist, and virosa means poisonous or having a bad odor. Distribution Flueggea virosa commonly grows in deciduous…
Sourplum fruits for food and oil
Sourplums, which belong to the Olacacea family, comprise two species: the Blue Sourplum (Ximenia americana) and the Great Sourplum (Ximenia caffra). Blue Sourplum The Blue Sourplum is naturally distributed in semi-tropical and tropical countries worldwide, as shown on the map….
Nara melons: Bread of the Namib desert
Nara melons were, in former times, the only food Topnaar people had available for four months (Jan – April) a year. They used conserved fruit pulp and seeds to supplement other food sources for the rest of the year. They…
Milkplum (Stamvrug) fruits grow directly out of the tree trunk
Milkplum (Englerophytum magalismontanum (Sond.) T.D.Penn). Common names: (Afr) Stamvrug. (Eng) Milkplum, Wild plum. (isiZulu) Amanumbela. (Northern Sotho) Mohlatswa. (siSwati) UmNumbela. (Tshivenda) Munombelo. (Xitsonga) Nombhela. Old name: Bequaertiodendron magalismontanum Distribution Milkplum is widely distributed from Central Africa to Botswana and Eastern…
Monkey orange, an eagerly sought-after fruit
Monkey orange is the collective common name for the fruit of at least five different Strychnos tree species, which occur from Durban/South Africa up to Western Tigray in Ethiopia. These fruits are highly delicious, and all parts of the trees…
Breadfruits (Artocarpus altilis) in Central Africa
Synonyms A. communis, A. incises; Common names Kikwa ki santu Petelo (Kongo), arbre à pain (Fr.), breadfruit Description A tree up to 35m tall produces a wide crown. All parts of the tree produce a white, bitter latex. Fruits are…
Indochina Dragon Plums from Hanoi streets
The Indochina Dragon Plum (Dracontomelon duperreanum) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae. In Vietnamese, it is called chi sấu). Dragon Plums are one of the most popular trees on the side of Hanoi streets. The fruits…
African mammee apple in West- and Central Africa
Common names are Mafambu, Dimbu dingi (dingi = gum, resin, incense) (Kongo), Bokodji (Lingala), African mammee apple, Oboto or Djimbo (commerce). Scientific name: Mammea africana. Description A large forest tree up to 45 m tall with a straight, cylindrical trunk…
Marang fruits in Southeast-Asian Rainforests
There are several local names for the tree and fruits of Artocarpus odoratissimus. In English, it is simply called ‘Marang’, which is based on the Philippines’ common name for this fruit. Originally endemic to the region around Mindanao, Sarawak, Kalimantan,…
Cashew apples and -nuts in Goa, India
Cashew trees (Anacardium occidentale) are native to areas around Northeastern Brazil. Portuguese colonists brought them around 1560 to Goa, India, from where they spread to Southeast Asia and Africa. Therefore, cashew products already have a long history in Goa and…
Jujube trees at Ayutthaya in Thailand
The Ayutthaya Historical Park covers the ruins of the old city, which was founded by the Khmer in 850 AD and named after the Hindu holy city of Ajodhya. The city was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767 and has…
Trunk it – it’s Marula beer!
Marula season in Southern Africa typically occurs in February of each year. When Marulas (Sclerocarya birrea) get ripe, they turn from green to yellow and fall from the female Marula trees. On the ground, they ripen fully and will start…
Buffalo thorn tree – an icon in Southern Africa
The Buffalo thorn tree (Ziziphus mucronata) is called in Afrikaans “Blinkblaar-wag-‘n-bietjie” for its shiny leaves and two thorns, which hold people back when getting caught by them. The shrub or tree has got distinctive zigzag branchlets with pairs of two…
Greenthorn tree and its uses
The Greenthorn tree (Balanites Maugham) is easily recognizable in Southern Africa due to its triangular, fluted, or buttressed trunk. Its spines are green like its twigs and often forked. It is very spiny and challenging to climb. It mainly grows…
Harvesting and opening Nipa Palm fruits
Nipa palms (Nypa fruticans) are a species of palms especially adapted to muddy environments of slow-moving tidal waters and mangrove forests. They occur in Asia-Pacific tropical climates. Nipa palm fruits are delicious to eat. Both the fruits and wooden parts…
Heavenly Durian
The fruit Durian (Durio zibethinus) is named after the Malay word ‘Duri’ for ‘Thorn’, referring to the thorny skin, and ‘zibethinus’ obviously refers to its smell. And the most sought-after variety in Malaysia is ‘Musang King’, where ‘Musang’ means ‘Palm…