Artocarpus altilis
Artocarpus altilis
| Order | [[]] |
|---|---|
| Family | [[]] |
| Genus | Artocarpus |
2n =
Origin : area of origin
wild or cultivated
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Description
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1, flowering and fruiting branch; 2, halved fruit (syncarp) (PROSEA)
Popular names
Classification
Cultivars
History
Uses
Artocarpus incisa Linn. f. BREADFRUIT. This most useful tree is nowhere found growing wild but is now extensively cultivated in warm regions. It is first described by the writer of Mendana's Voyage to the Marquesas Islands, 1595. It has been distributed from the Moluccas, by way of Celebes and New Guinea, throughout all the islands of the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti. Breadfruit is also naturalized in, the Isle of France, in tropical Americal [1] and bears fruit in Ceylon and Burma [2]. It is more especially an object of care and cultivation in the Marquesas and the Friendly and Society Islands. The tree was conveyed to the Isle of France from Luzon in the Philippines by Sonnerat. In 1792, from Tahiti and Timor, Capt. Bligh, who was commissioned by the British Government for this purpose, took a store of plants and in 1793 landed 333 breadfruit trees at St. Vincent and 347 at Port Royal, Jamaica [3]. In the cultivated breadfruit, the seeds are almost always abortive, leaving their places empty [4] which shows that its cultivation goes back to a remote antiquity. This seedlessness does not hold true, however, of all varieties, of which there are many. Chamisso [5] describes a variety in the Mariana Islands with small fruit containing seeds which are frequently perfect. Sonnerat found in the Philippines a breadfruit, which he considered as wild, which bears ripe seeds of a considerable size [6]. In Tahiti, there are eight varieties without seeds and one variety with seeds which is inferior to the others [7]. Nine varieties are credited by Wilkes [8] to the Fiji Islands and twenty to the Samoan [9]. Captain Cook [10], at Tahiti, in 1769, describes the fruit as about the size and shape of a child's head, with the surface reticulated not much unlike a truffle, covered with a thin skin and having a core about as big as the handle of a small knife.
The eatable part of breadfruit lies between the skin and the core and is as white as snow and somewhat of the consistence of new bread. It must be roasted before it is eaten. Its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. Wilkes [11] says the best varieties when baked or roasted are not unlike a good custard pudding. If the breadfruit is to be preserved, it is scraped from the rind and buried in a pit where it is allowed to ferment, when it subsides into a mass somewhat of the consistency of new cheese. These pits when opened emit a nauseous, fetid, sour odor, and the color of the contents is a greenish-yellow. In this state it is called mandraiuta, or native bread, of which several kinds are distinguished. It is said that it will keep several years and is cooked with cocoanut milk, in which state it forms an agreeable and nutritious food. This tree affords one of the most generous sources of nutriment that the world possesses. According to Foster [12], twenty-seven breadfruit trees, which would cover an English acre with their shade, are sufficient for the support of from ten to twelve people during the eight months of fruit-bearing. Breadfruit is called in Tahiti maiore, in Hawaii aeiore [13].
- ↑ Unger, P. U.S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 315. 1859.
- ↑ Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 426. 1874.
- ↑ Enc. Brit. 5: 301. 1844. 8th Ed.
- ↑ De Candolle, A. P. Veg. Organ. 2: 174. 1840.
- ↑ Darwin, C. Ans. Pls. Domest. 2: 256, 1893.
- ↑ Forster, J. R. Obs. 179. 1778. Note.
- ↑ Lunan, J. Hort. Jam. 1: 113. 1814.
- ↑ Wilkes, C. U.S. Explor. Exped. 3: 332. 1845.
- ↑ Wilkes, C. U.S. Explor. Exped. 2: 121. 1845.
- ↑ Cook Voyage 3: 207. 1773.
- ↑ Wilkes, C. U.S. Explor. Exped. 3: 333. 1845.
- ↑ Peschel, O. Races Man 156. 1876.
- ↑ Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pls. 437. 1879.