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Published: September 18th 2008
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Acerola : Acerola (Malpighia glabra) or Acerolla, also known as Barbados cherry or wild crapemyrtle, is a tropical fruit-bearing shrub or small tree in the family Malpighiaceae. It ranges from southern Texas south through Mexico and the Caribbean to Peru and Bahia in Brazil. It is also cultivated in India. It grows to 3 m tall, with a dense, thorny crown. The leaves are evergreen, simple ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 cm long, with an entire margin. The flowers are produced in umbels of 2-5 together, each flower 1-1.5 cm diameter, with five pink or red petals.
The fruit is bright red, 1.5-2 cm diameter, containing 2-3 hard seeds. It is juicy, often as much sour as sweet in flavor, and very high in vitamin C and other nutrients.
Mamoncillo or Quenepa: The mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus), also known as the mamón (although the word is considered obscene in some Spanish speaking countries), chenet, guaya, gnep, ginep, skinnip (in Jamaica, St. Kitts) genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Haiti), quenepa (in Puerto Rico), ackee (in Barbados), Spanish lime, or limoncillo (in Dominican Republic), 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 but rigid layer of skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, which is sucked by putting the whole fruit inside the mouth (the seed takes most of the volume of what is inside the skin). Despite the light color of the fruit's flesh, the juice stains a dark brown color, and was often used by indigenous Arawak natives to dye cloth.
Fruit
Fruit
Each mamoncillo fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself. Mamoncillo seeds can be roasted and eaten just like sunflower seeds or chestnuts.
The mamoncillo has small, greenish-white, fragrant flowers
in panicles. They begin to blossom from the branch tips when the rainy season begins. The mamoncillo is an example of a polygamous plant, producing bisexual flowers as well as flowers that are exclusively male or exclusively female. Occasionally, a bisexual flower will have a "dud" (sterile) anther, which limits the number of fruits produced from self-pollination when cross-pollination is possible.
Being tropical, the mamoncillo prefers warmer temperatures. Its leaves can be damaged if the temperature hits freezing point, with serious damage occurring below -4°C. Gardeners of mamoncillos should occasionally give their plants heavy watering during the summer and propagate via seeds; grafting is also used to propagate cultivars.
The mamoncillo is also commonly planted along roadsides as an ornamental tree.
According to Caribbean folk wisdom (especially in Jamaica), girls learn the art of kissing by eating the sweet flesh of this fruit, also it is said that if a girl finds two seeds then they'll have twins.
Mamey or sapote: The mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota) is a species of tree that is native to southern Mexico. Today, the tree is cultivated not only in Mexico, but also in Central America, the Caribbean, and South Florida for its melon, which is commonly eaten in many Latin American countries. Mamey sapote is a large and highly ornamental evergreen tree that can reach a height of 15 to 45 meters (60 to 140 feet) at maturity. Like most fruit trees, it is mainly propagated by grafting, which ensures that the new plant has the same characteristics as the parent, especially its fruit. It is also considerably faster than growing trees by seed. The melon is about 10 to 25 cm (4 to 10 inches) long and 8 to 12 cm (3 to 5 inches) wide and has orange flesh.
The melon is eaten raw out of hand or made into milkshakes, smoothies, ice cream and fruit bars. The melon's flavor is variously described as a combination of pumpkin, sweet potato, candied yams, maraschino cherries with the texture of an avocado. Some consider the melon to be an aphrodisiac.
The brown skin has a texture somewhere between sandpaper and the fuzz on a peach. The melon's texture is creamy and sweet. To tell when a mamey sapote is ripe, peel off a fleck of the skin to see if it is pink underneath. The flesh should give slightly, as with a ripe kiwifruit.
The mamey sapote is related to other sapotes as naseberry, abiu and canistel but unrelated to the black sapote (Diospyros digyna) and white sapote (Casimiroa edulis).
I can tell you I have had my share of these!
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