Engkala (Litsea garciae) Flowers for first time

[Mike T]

Pearly Oscars or Hilo Snowflake could be new names to consider if it is the birth of a new cv.

[fruitlovers]

Great pics. First time I have ever heard of or seen white engkala. I collected some seeds from Felipe's engkala tree last summer. I wonder if they will produce white fruit also.

I found this link with pics with white fruit: http://www.sarawaklens.com/2009_11_15_archive.html

Murahilin, thanks for the link. I had not seen that page yet. I think those are unripe fruits that look whitish. He says right on this link that:
As the fruits mature, they will turn a bright pink. However, they are only ready to be eaten when they turn a deeper red and the flesh has become soft. When consumed either green or pink, the flesh will be tough and tastes bitter-spicy. The after taste when consumed like this (spicy) is especially bad.

[fruitlovers]

Absolutely wonderful pics, as we have come to expect.  But where is the fruit tasting description??? Did I miss something?

Harry

HA HA HA HArry. I was just waiting for you to ask! The first one i ate was god awful, and gave me a stomach ache. But i bit into it skin and all. Kind of like eating an avocado skin! DUHHHH, that was dumb of me! Later i read up on them and learned you are supposed to soak them in hot water for 5 minutes and NOT eat the exterior peel. That sure improved the taste!  ;DYes there is a definite avocado resemblence in the taste. Even the interior color is slightly avocado green. The fruit is a lot smaller than avocado so not nearly as much to eat. I think my fruits are still on smallish side compared to photos on the web. So the taste is like avocado, but a little bit more spicy. Unlike avocado the fruits drop and spoil very fast, so you have to be on top of it.

[fruitlovers]

How interesting! Great photos. How large are the fruit? They look maybe half dollar size?

-Luke

They are about size of old large dollar coin. Here is a photo that shows scale:

[fruitlovers]

Great pics. First time I have ever heard of or seen white engkala. I collected some seeds from Felipe's engkala tree last summer. I wonder if they will produce white fruit also.

I found this link with pics with white fruit: http://www.sarawaklens.com/2009_11_15_archive.html

Murahilin, thanks for the link. I had not seen that page yet. I think those are unripe fruits that look whitish. He says right on this link that:
As the fruits mature, they will turn a bright pink. However, they are only ready to be eaten when they turn a deeper red and the flesh has become soft. When consumed either green or pink, the flesh will be tough and tastes bitter-spicy. The after taste when consumed like this (spicy) is especially bad.

Mike, I like the name Hilo Snowflake, because here they are about as rare as a snoflake!

[tropical66]

http://fazlisyam.com/2010/03/02/buah-engkala/

[fruitlovers]

http://fazlisyam.com/2010/03/02/buah-engkala/

thanks for the link Tropicdude. Interesting how he posts same photo of fruit starting to turn pink on tree as on Sarawak lens site, but just uses a mirror image. I guess to deflect attention from fact he's lifting the image from elsewhere?

[red durian]

Just came across this document that indicates that white engkalas were introduced to Australia between 1992 and 1995 (along with "red" ones). 

http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Primary_Industry/Content/File/horticulture/fruit/PAGES+FROM+TB242-EXOTIC+FRUIT+GERMPLASM.pdf

[fruitlovers]

Just came across this document that indicates that white engkalas were introduced to Australia between 1992 and 1995 (along with "red" ones). 

http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Primary_Industry/Content/File/horticulture/fruit/PAGES+FROM+TB242-EXOTIC+FRUIT+GERMPLASM.pdf

Thanks for the article, will have to read it later.
The confusing thing on mine is that all my orginal seeds came from Felipe Osborne in Puerto Rico. But all the photos he shows red fruit. So it seems it's possible for them to revert to other colors? Or maybe white is just an albino mutation?

[Sanddollarmoon]

How old are your trees? I noticed you had them available, I am tempted, I never heard of these before. You also seem to offer scions, so depending on the time to fruit, I may prefer the “easy” route (with the bonus of assured white fruit production, I wonder if this mutation is stable?).

[fruitlovers]

How old are your trees? I noticed you had them available, I am tempted, I never heard of these before. You also seem to offer scions, so depending on the time to fruit, I may prefer the “easy” route (with the bonus of assured white fruit production, I wonder if this mutation is stable?).

They're about 10 years old. Grafted it would certainly turn out the same. From seed there might be fruit color variation, just like my seeds varied from mother trees.

[fruitlovers]

The engkalas are fruiting again. This year, the second fruiting, they fruited a lot more lightly.