Author Topic: Delicious unidentified fruit (Read 8839 times)

red durian · « **on:** September 22, 2012, 05:23:21 AM »

Does anyone have any idea what this is? It is a fruit purchased at a farmer's market near the equator at 900 feet elevation.

mysterious fruit

Mike T · « **Reply #1 on:** September 22, 2012, 06:05:27 AM »

red durian, or should I call you D.dulcis or D99, there is something kinda familiar about that fruit.It could almost be an Etlingera of some type and sure has a ginger fruit look about it.

red durian · « **Reply #2 on:** September 22, 2012, 06:11:14 AM »

I had not even considered that it might have come from such a plant. This area is full of Etlingeras. I will look into that. Thanks.

Mike T · « **Reply #3 on:** September 22, 2012, 06:18:00 AM »

Maybe in the group that has E.coccinea or a name that is similar.The inside looks like some wild gingers around here.

red durian · « **Reply #4 on:** September 22, 2012, 06:44:46 AM »

I have 16 Etlingera species listed with edible fruits. Now I just need to check through the drawings. I think you may be right.

bsbullie · « **Reply #5 on:** September 22, 2012, 06:44:52 AM »

What country did you buy it in?

red durian · « **Reply #6 on:** September 22, 2012, 07:04:49 AM »

Malaysia. If it is an Etlingera species, it is not 7 of the ones on my list. It looks most like E. kenyalang, or E. foetens but no photo of either of their fruits on Google images.

Mike T · « **Reply #7 on:** September 22, 2012, 07:20:59 AM »

There is one with 'co' starting the species name that rings a bell.While you are there red durian, is it Durio dulcis you get your name from? In your travels do you ever stumble across willughbeas,goo pulasans,keranjis,yellow fleshed tampoi or durio zibethinus x dulcis? There arelots of exciting fruits like that in your neck of the woods.

red durian · « **Reply #8 on:** September 22, 2012, 10:52:29 AM »

Etlingera coccinea is not the fruit unless the fruit form is highly variable. (I have a drawing of it and it does not look like the fruit my wife bought)
Lots of languages here and fruit names change every 20km, so unless you have a botanical name, I may not know what fruit you mean. The fruit that has impressed me the most (since I had never heard about it) was klambuku. It is a nephellium species. Sometimes I prefer them to rambutans or pulasans. They were available from late Jan to mid Feb. last year.

tabbydan · « **Reply #9 on:** September 23, 2012, 07:24:35 PM »

Is this just a Borneo thing... a whole bunch of fruits that aren't commonly commercialized.

I guess I really need to do Borneo. And I think you need to make a post showing the hotspots for fruit on Borneo (markets, gardens, etc...)

I'd love to be eating these things!

Mike mentioned willughbeas. I didn't see any when I was in Sumatra / Java / Bali (though they are native to those islands) except when I was at the Borneo Botanical Gardens. That garden is truly AMAZING. Even if there were no fruits it would be well worth a visit as it is quite pretty and has many different gardens and garden styles (from native forests, to orchid conservatories....). I saw one vine labled willughbea sp. but it was small and had no fruits. Somehow I must have gotten tangled in the vine because a 6 inch piece broke off and came with me (sadly Atlanta customs later got that) I was going to send it to F&S in Florida. Oddly at the garden I was expressing interest in a Litsea sp. and a worker there actually climbed the tree and picked some fruit for me (never had that experience before!)

fruitlovers · « **Reply #10 on:** September 23, 2012, 08:00:29 PM »

Looks similar to this ettlingera from Sumatra, no species name given:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14839479@N05/5322704414/#

red durian · « **Reply #11 on:** September 24, 2012, 02:55:22 AM »

Wow Oscar, amazing that you could find the photo. Too bad something so yummy is so difficult to identify.

fruitlovers · « **Reply #12 on:** September 24, 2012, 03:10:22 AM »

Quote from: red durian on September 24, 2012, 02:55:22 AM

Wow Oscar, amazing that you could find the photo. Too bad something so yummy is so difficult to identify.

You would need to look in a book about ettlingeras to ID it. There is someone here who is a specialist in Zingiberaceae so i'll forward your photo to him and see if he can give a positive ID.

fruitlovers · « **Reply #13 on:** September 24, 2012, 05:08:55 PM »

Quote from: fruitlovers on September 24, 2012, 03:10:22 AM

Quote from: red durian on September 24, 2012, 02:55:22 AM
Wow Oscar, amazing that you could find the photo. Too bad something so yummy is so difficult to identify.
You would need to look in a book about ettlingeras to ID it. There is someone here who is a specialist in Zingiberaceae so i'll forward your photo to him and see if he can give a positive ID.

Here is what our local zingiber specialist said:
This is a fruit of Amomum sp., possibly A. gyrolophus. Although I have collected many Amomum in Sabah,I have not seen this sp. to my knowledge. Many Amomum, Hornstedtia and Etlingera are quite edible and delicious,but seed, seed and more seed. I will do some more research and let you know.

red durian · « **Reply #14 on:** September 24, 2012, 06:56:47 PM »

Quote from: fruitlovers on September 24, 2012, 05:08:55 PM

Quote from: fruitlovers on September 24, 2012, 03:10:22 AM
Quote from: red durian on September 24, 2012, 02:55:22 AM
Wow Oscar, amazing that you could find the photo. Too bad something so yummy is so difficult to identify.
You would need to look in a book about ettlingeras to ID it. There is someone here who is a specialist in Zingiberaceae so i'll forward your photo to him and see if he can give a positive ID.

Here is what our local zingiber specialist said:
This is a fruit of Amomum sp., possibly A. gyrolophus. Although I have collected many Amomum in Sabah,I have not seen this sp. to my knowledge. Many Amomum, Hornstedtia and Etlingera are quite edible and delicious,but seed, seed and more seed. I will do some more research and let you know.

Just when I thought it was etlingera... Thank you. It is not terribly important to know exactly which one it is now, if there are many species with delicious fruits, but I wonder how many taste so much like strawberry.

tabbydan · « **Reply #15 on:** September 24, 2012, 07:34:24 PM »

Those seeds look easy to mail!

red durian · « **Reply #16 on:** September 24, 2012, 10:08:56 PM »

Quote from: tabbydan on September 24, 2012, 07:34:24 PM

Those seeds look easy to mail!

My first thought too. I am trying to germinate the seeds now. I don't trust the seeds of a gingery plant though, since the plant is probably happy to spread via its roots. I haven't done any reading yet about the viability of such seeds. (I grew yellow pitaya (Hylocereus megalanthus) from seed a few yrs ago. That was pretty funny. After one year, the plant was about 8mm tall. I am expecting something similar with this plant if the seed germinates. Hopefully I will be wrong.)

tabbydan · « **Reply #17 on:** September 25, 2012, 08:31:26 AM »

I think you're exactly right:
As a seedling it would probably be tiny and slow growing. Plus gingers do really well if you propigate them via rhizome.

I was just jokingly begging.

Though seriously if you do save materials of these ultra-cool plants you're eating places like Fruit and Spice park would be good repositories for them.
-----
I thought yellow pitaya / yellow dragonfruit was a Selenicereus. It's really too bad that one isn't more commonly sold. It is so much more tasty than H. undatus (which sadly gets the bulk of the cactus fruit attention).

red durian · « **Reply #18 on:** September 26, 2012, 06:51:39 PM »

New information from the sellers: My wife saw them again and asked what the plant looked like. They said, "Just like (Etlingera eliator)"

Mike T · « **Reply #19 on:** September 26, 2012, 06:57:53 PM »

I am rootin for an Etlingera rather than an Amomum.

Yellow dragons will come to Hylocereus if they are not there yet.I believe they are an intergeneric hybrid anyway.

fruitlovers · « **Reply #20 on:** September 26, 2012, 07:11:10 PM »

Quote from: Mike T on September 26, 2012, 06:57:53 PM

I am rootin for an Etlingera rather than an Amomum.

Yellow dragons will come to Hylocereus if they are not there yet.I believe they are an intergeneric hybrid anyway.

Already are yellow hylocereus fruits.

In any case megalanthus got lumped into genus hylocereus, so even that fruit now is officially a yellow hylocereus.

tabbydan · « **Reply #21 on:** September 26, 2012, 07:13:24 PM »

Quote from: Mike T on September 26, 2012, 06:57:53 PM

Yellow dragons will come to Hylocereus if they are not there yet.I believe they are an intergeneric hybrid anyway.

NEVER! Selenicerus forever!
Actually I'm not big on taxonomy wars, but I'm rooting for a different genus as they are so much tastier its hard to believe they are related

fruitlovers · « **Reply #22 on:** September 26, 2012, 07:18:17 PM »

The motto of the lumper taxonomists: "Lump them or leave them!"

jez251 · « **Reply #23 on:** September 27, 2012, 10:30:16 PM »

I just had some yellow pitaya yesterday. Much sweeter than the red and white dragon fruit I've had here. This one was from the F&S park, although originally from Colombia. Even brought home a cutting and really hope it takes. The cutting and fruit were a lot smaller than the red and white, as well.

Jaime

red durian · « **Reply #24 on:** October 31, 2012, 03:58:04 AM »

Today I got the plant!

Last week my non-Malaysian wife struggled to communicate in Malaysian to the Murut sellers to let them know I wanted to buy a piece of the rhizome of the plant she had bought fruits from a month earlier. The old ladies remembered and were happy to see me show up to claim my rhizome today. It is now in the ground here and I hope it survives.

News:

Author Topic: Delicious unidentified fruit (Read 8839 times)