The Sultan of Fruits (my photos of red durian) Durio graveolens

[red durian]

When there is a lot of durian in our diet, we prefer red durian (different species), but if we have had no durios in a while, we prefer durian.  Red durian is very dense,  fatty and red through to the seed.  It has almost no smell and a very subtle flavour.  Little diversity in taste but lots of variability in flesh thickness with some trees producing fruits that barely have their seeds covered with flesh while other trees produce fruits that have frequent aborted seeds with very thick flesh.  During the "fruit season" here in Sabah,  red durian is my favorite fruit.  Sorry to appear in the fruit photos, but I could not help it upon finally meeting the Sultan.

[Mike T]

Red durian it is great to see you and the durians together and the artistic shot with the model is great.Have you ever seen the crossed between those and the zibethinus durian? There are 3 cultivars around Borneo.I bet Oscar would appreciate a batch of those seeds.
The fruit are quite small,are they wild collected?

[red durian]

Red durian it is great to see you and the durians together and the artistic shot with the model is great.Have you ever seen the crossed between those and the zibethinus durian? There are 3 cultivars around Borneo.I bet Oscar would appreciate a batch of those seeds.
The fruit are quite small,are they wild collected?

I did not know they had been crossed with durian.  I would love to taste that combination.  I believe these ones may have been from a back yard tree.  A man was selling stacks by the roadside but they looked to me as though they had been taken early, so we went to the tree and just got ones that had already cracked open on the tree.  (That is the major problem with this species;  they crack and then fall a couple of days later).  The tree had a gorgeous spherical shape and was loaded with fruit.

[tabbydan]

So jealous!

I was looking for this (and the other durian relatives) and found none.

Where exactly do you find the durian relatives?

[red durian]

So jealous!

I was looking for this (and the other durian relatives) and found none.

Where exactly do you find the durian relatives?

In Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia you can buy D. graveolens, D. oxleyanus, D. testudinarum and D. zibethinus at the farmer's market in late January.

[Mike T]

My friend has a seedling of graveolans x zibethinus that is supposedly well known in graveolans country in Borneo and called suluk.It is only 3 years old and came from your neck of the woods I think red durian.I have not eaten graveolans but read it tastes like burnt caramel.

[red durian]

My friend has a seedling of graveolans x zibethinus that is supposedly well known in graveolans country in Borneo and called suluk.It is only 3 years old and came from your neck of the woods I think red durian.I have not eaten graveolans but read it tastes like burnt caramel.

I have not encountered any red durians that I would call sweet.  They do have some sweetness, but nothing like what you would expect from a durio.  But, I guess if the caramel is burnt, the sugar has become carbon (which also is not sweet).

The subtle flavor to me is like an avocado that has 30% fat, but no avocado flavour and has been dehydrated somewhat, sweetened somewhat, and flavoured with a powdered red multivitamin.

[tabbydan]

Your description doesn't make it sound very tasty (yummy red multivitamin flavor).  But the fact that you prefer them to standard durian does.

I suspect that flavor differences inside these other species might be even bigger than with durian (after all no breeding work has been done so there is no cloning and natural variation is at a peak).

When I did a fruit hike in a national park of Sumatra my guide (who spotted several Durio trees but none had fruits possibly because the orang-utangs beat me to them... they even like to have nests in the Durios to be close to their food) the guide indicated his personal opinon of the other species wasn't terribly high.  He seemed to indicate that they were strongly flavored and savory (not terribly sweet).  Obviously some of them are sweet though because some people talk about sweetness in the other species.

[Gouralata]

Hi red Durian, a pacific war will beguin between us !

I tasted that durian in Beaufort, it's very dry and fine but for me Red Durian is Durio dulcis ! Tuttong or lahong or Durian merah (mean red in Malay) is the Durio dulcis as its outside color is red (not its flesh, OK). Go to Miri and taste Durio dulcis, you'll be in eden or in evil (the smell and the taste are so strong !)
We have another commun point except durian, Just few hairs on our head !

Gouralata (soon in Sarawak !)

[lkailburn]

An odorless red durian. Something i'll have to add to the bucket list. Although the flavor description you've just posted makes me think otherwise haha. Can't knock it till you've tried it I guess!

-Luke

[Felipe]

Very cool!! Thanks for sharing the pictures and information

[fruitlovers]

Great photos! Thanks for sharing red durian. What time of the year are they in season in Sabah?

[fruitlovers]

Red durian it is great to see you and the durians together and the artistic shot with the model is great.Have you ever seen the crossed between those and the zibethinus durian? There are 3 cultivars around Borneo.I bet Oscar would appreciate a batch of those seeds.
The fruit are quite small,are they wild collected?

You got that right Mike! Would love to get some seeds of those. I had two nice Durio dulcis trees in my orchard and they both succumbed to phytophora. 

[DurianLover]

My translation of "very dense" would be: waxy. When you bite into wild small durian, it's like taking a bite into warm candle wax. You almost need to take a sip of water after each bite.

I will be travelling around Borneo this January anyway, so if any board member wants wild durian seeds, I might get some...

[Tim]

It's awesome to have so many Durian lovers on board.  Almost enough temptation for me to go get a frozen durian from the local markets 

I miss eating good freshly harvested durians ...

[Mike T]

DL I think your messages will soon be piling up with durio,pulasan and relatives,willughbea and rambai relatives requests.You might have to send a few crates of seeds back.If you have a local in the know on your side and a few tentacles out you could get a great haul.

[red durian]

Hi red Durian, a pacific war will beguin between us !

I tasted that durian in Beaufort, it's very dry and fine but for me Red Durian is Durio dulcis ! Tuttong or lahong or Durian merah (mean red in Malay) is the Durio dulcis as its outside color is red (not its flesh, OK). Go to Miri and taste Durio dulcis, you'll be in eden or in evil (the smell and the taste are so strong !)
We have another commun point except durian, Just few hairs on our head !

Gouralata (soon in Sarawak !)

I agree that it is weird to call D. graveolens 'red durian' when A. it is yellow skinned and B. there is another species that is red skinned.  I guess the reason it is Durian merah locally is because no one here has ever seen D. dulcis.

[red durian]

Great photos! Thanks for sharing red durian. What time of the year are they in season in Sabah?

January

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Hi Red Durio,

That's some amazing pics...Thanks a bunch for sharing

I read an article about a year or two ago...Of a former teacher in Southeast Asia(maybe Borneo or Sumatra) that was cross-breeding Durian species and had some hybrids with merah. And if I remember correctly...he made an auction to sale these rare crosses. I will try to find this article...it ain't going to be easy Doesn't hurt to try    

[MOE]

Hi red durio,

have you fresh seeds of durio graveolens  ,  I'd like to buy some !

Moe

[FlyingFoxFruits]

bringing up this old thread makes me miss Red Durian (the forum member!)  It's been a while since he's posted

[murahilin]

bringing up this old thread makes me miss Red Durian (the forum member!)  It's been a while since he's posted

Yeah, I wonder what he's been up to. He hasn't been on the forum since Oct and he he's barely posted for the past year.

[Ethan]

Unfortunately last contact I had, he was not in Borneo anymore. 

It is pretty incredible having some of the members visiting there but to have a man on the ground day in and out at the market, that was priceless.

[fruitlovers]

He posted about looking for land to buy in a country that was not dangerous. I think he wanted to go to Honduras or Belize?
BTW, there is another forum member that lives in Borneo (Sabah), Doug Furtek. You should hit him up for seeds Ethan.