I think the largest tropical fruit collection in the world is Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, found at
http://www.fairchildgarden.orgThese are but a part of the small fruits, the diminutive fruits of Central America
Ackee (Akee, Blighia Sapida)
They say these are poisonous, but well, well, most of it is, but the tiny little yellow spot in the otherwise beautiful red fruit can be eaten, and I tried it cooked into eggs. Its good, and I do not die at all (so far)
Craboo or Nance or…
… changugu, chi, nance agrio, nanche, nanchi, nancen, nanche de perro, nananche, and nantzin in Mexico; nance verde in El Salvador; nancito or crabo in Honduras; craboo, crapoo and wild craboo in Belize; doncela and maricao in the Dominican Republic; maricao cimaroon, maricao verde, peralejo and peralejo blanco in Puerto Rico; peralejo de sabana in Cuba; tapal in Guatemala; chaparro, chaparro manteca, maache, mantequera, nanzi, noro, peraleja hembra, yaca or yuco in Colombia; chaparro de chinche, chaparro de sabana, manero manteco, manteco merey or manteco sabanero in Venezuela; murici, mirixi, murici-do-campo, and muruci-da-praia in Brazil; hori, sabana kwari moeleidan, and sabana mango in Surinam; huria in Guyana; quinquina des savannes in Guateloupe; savanna serrette in Trinidad; sometimes wild cherry in Panama; golden spoon in the former British West Indies.
The nance is a slow-growing large shrub or tree to 33 ft (10 m). The tree is native and abundant in the wild, sometimes in extensive stands. The fruits are eaten raw or cooked as dessert, or may be included in soup or in stuffing for meats. They are also made into a candy, Dulce de Nance, prepared with the fruit cooked in sugar and water. The fruits are often used to prepare carbonated beverages, flavor mezcal based liquers, or make an oily, acidic, fermented beverage known as chicha, the standard term applied to assorted beer-like drinks made of fruits or maize. Nance is used to distill a rum-like liquor called Crema de nance in Costa Rica.
Candied, or Brandied, maybe, for a couple years in sugar, sealed, the fruits are sweet and apple ish, the liquid more like wine as the yeasts die above twelve percent alcohol.
The Lychee (Litchi chinensis), a.k.a.Litchi (the U.S. FDA spelling) or Laichi and Lichu, is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family Sapindaceae. It is a tropical fruit tree native to southern China.
Commonly found in India, northern Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
It is a medium-sized evergreen tree, reaching 15–20 m tall, with alternate pinnate leaves, each leaf 15–25 cm long, with 2-8 lateral leaflets 5–10 cm long; the terminal leaflet is absent. The newly emerging young leaves are a bright coppery red at first, before turning green as they expand to full size. The flowers are small, greenish-white or yellowish-white, produced in panicles up to 30 cm long.
The fruit is a drupe, 3–4 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. The outside is covered by a pink-red, roughly-textured rind that is inedible but easily removed. The inside consists of a layer of sweet, translucent white flesh, rich in vitamin C, with a texture somewhat similar to that of a grape. The edible flesh consists of a highly developed aril enveloping the seed. The center contains a single glossy brown nut-like seed, 2 cm long and 1–1.5 cm in diameter. The seed, similar to a buckeye seed, is slightly poisonous and should not be eaten. The fruit matures from July to October, about 100 days after flowering.
Kenip or kinip or …
…mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus), also known as the mamón chenet, guaya, gnep, ginep, skinnip (in St. Kitts) genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Haiti), quenepa (in Puerto Rico), akee (in Barbados), Spanish lime, or limoncillo, is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalised over a wide area of the American tropics including Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Suriname and the Caribbean. It is a large tree growing up to 30 m high. The leaves are alternate, 8–5 cm long, pinnate with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 5–10 cm long.
It is grown and cultivated for its ovoid, green fruit, which grow in bunches. The fruit ripen during the summer. The fruit, similar to that of the related lychee, is classified as a drupe. A mamoncillo fruit has a tight and thin skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, the seed takes most of the volume of the fruit, but its ice cream like texture is worth the effort
Malpighia glabra or Acerola
These are, for all the world, a cherry, in every way but name and seed count. Common though the islands, less so inland for no good reason, a cherry that needs not cold dormancy.
My Opera
