Bunchosia argentea (peanut butter fruit) the real one

[fruitlovers]

thanks for the insight Oscar,

BTW, I know someone who's fruiting the real peanut butter fruit in CA.
Right next to cherimoyas.

I'm really going to be surprised if this tree fruits with no problem in FL, and if it's much better than the B. armeniaca.

All of this time, and no one in USA seems to have it??

Strange.

If this tree is much better, and fruits well in my area, it will be very encouraging, as a person who is trying to collect and popularize new fruit trees.

After trying to find this species for about 3 yrs, I kept getting the same plant, B. armeniaca, mislabeled as the true Peanut butter fruit (B. argentea).

It turns out that B. argentea is much harder to find. 

After locating the real plant, I'm curious to see how it performs in FL.

I've read that these Bunchosia species (armeniaca and argentea) both come from areas that have higher elevations. I'm wondering if it might present a similar problem that the cherimoya does, where the plant grows wonderfully, but has trouble making fruits at low elevations.

I wonder why B. argentea is so obscure, especially if its a superior fruit?  The B. armeniaca isn't hard to locate, and grows well here in FL, so maybe  that's a good sign.

Adam, both armeniaca and argentea flower and fruit fine in lowland tropics. I think it is much more of a problem to get them to fruit in places like California. These 2 species were confused together for a long time and practically every single nursery, including mine, had armeniaca mislabeled as argentea. It wasn't until Lorenzi's blue book that this misidentification came clearly to light...though many nurseries still continue to mislabel it. Why the argentea is so hard to get? My guess would be that the armeniaca was the species originally introduced long ago by USDA experimental stations and that they were the ones to originally mislabel it, so that is the one widely distributed and misidentified. To get the real argentea have to go back to the source country, i believe Venezuela, maybe Venezuela/Brazil border?

It's really not all too strange. For a really long time many people, including myself, thought that probably armeniaca and argentea were the same species. It wasn't until Lorenzi's book that it was really clear that they were distinct, and also that argenetea was superior tasting. Also many people are not that enthused by peanut butter fruit, so for that reason also i think not too many were searching for other species of bunchosia. BTW, i believe there may be several other edible species of bunchosia genus besides these two, but i don't know how good they are. Personally i like the PB fruits, but put in the kiddie fruit category, along with jamaican cherry (Muntingia calabura), another good but tiny fruit.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Oscar,

thanks for the info.

It is very encouraging for a few reasons.

one being that it sounds like this tree will fruit just fine in lowland areas.

two, because this superior species is still obscure, and we have many more plants to discover (and rediscover).

[jez251]

I wonder if the plant at the Fruit & Spice Park is the better B. Argentea. I first tasted Peanut Butter Fruit there and immediately liked it. Not sure if I can eat too much of it because of its pasty texture, but the flavor was really good.

I'll have to check the leaves next time I go, which may be this weekend.

Jaime

[FlyingFoxFruits]

It's armeniaca.

I was just there.

didn't you post pics already, and I confirmed this?

along with some bael fruits?

[jez251]

It's armeniaca.

I was just there.

If that's the case, the flavor of Armeniaca is good. I can only imaging how great argentea will be!

Jaime

[FlyingFoxFruits]

haha,

I wonder how a sandwich would taste, with blackberry jam fruit, and peanut butter fruit?

all we need is 2 slices of breadfruit.

haha

[fruitlovers]

haha,

I wonder how a sandwich would taste, with blackberry jam fruit, and peanut butter fruit?

all we need is 2 slices of breadfruit.

haha

PB fruit doesn't really taste like peanut butter to me. It's a good name though because the texture is sticky like peanut butter, but taste of fruit is sweet and not nutty to me. Breadfruit also doesn't taste like bread. Of these the only one that really tastes like the name is blackberry jam fruit, which is really tasting like the name says. Again blackberry jam fruit is good but falls under my kiddie fruit category because fruits are so small.

[jez251]

haha,

I wonder how a sandwich would taste, with blackberry jam fruit, and peanut butter fruit?

all we need is 2 slices of breadfruit.

haha

PB fruit doesn't really taste like peanut butter to me. It's a good name though because the texture is sticky like peanut butter, but taste of fruit is sweet and not nutty to me. Breadfruit also doesn't taste like bread. Of these the only one that really tastes like the name is blackberry jam fruit, which is really tasting like the name says. Again blackberry jam fruit is good but falls under my kiddie fruit category because fruits are so small.

I think the idea was still pretty funny, Adam!

Jaime

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Jaime,

 

I'm still waiting for a few fruits to come out...

fried chicken fruit, and bacon fruit.

[jez251]

Yeah, companies like Monsanto are working on them as we speak.

Jaime

[FlyingFoxFruits]

monsanto needs to make a swiss army plant.

or a transformer plant.

U know, like a tree that you can graft anything onto!!!

or a tree that transforms new growth into anything you want.

Grow tomatoes, apples, lychees, mangoes, bananas, and avocados all on the same tree.

 

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Steven,

I like to eat B armeniaca early, when they are full sized , firm and orange.

They taste less like green beans at this stage, and more like a very good carrot (maybe a peanut butter carrot?  )

the only problem is that the seed is very large, and the flesh is a bit difficult to eat, without cutting the fruit in half (damaging the seed), or grating it off like cheese.

I scrape the flesh of the fruit off with my two front teeth, something like a rodent.

Hi Adam,
If they produce one day...i will try both mature orange and ripe peanuts and see which do i fancy.  If memory serves, the two seeds were similar to suri's in size. Will post a pic of the two badboys...i like the casimiroa spotted bark they have

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Steven,

I forgot to mention, I've read that the b argentea is a slightly smaller tree than aremeniaca.
I bet cuttings will make for even smaller trees, and they will be easy to fruit in containers.

Im thinking one might be more cold sensitive than the other, (argentea being more sensitive), but I'm not sure.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Hi Adam,
Here's the two badboys...don't know why the leaves have a light green colour(Maybe they wan't some food) Though they will be tipped in spring, before planting out

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Steven,

Don't worry about the chloritic leaves!

They all seem to grow out of this condition, unlike some myrciaria species.

I hope you enjoy them (I know you will!)

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Steven,

Don't worry about the chloritic leaves!

They all seem to grow out of this condition, unlike some myrciaria species.

I hope you enjoy them (I know you will!)

  these leaves don't worry me much Hopefully they will crack the whip and grow big & proud

Can't wait to see them produce and taste them peanuts

[FlyingFoxFruits]

FYI,

these seem super easy to graft.  I had some seedlings of the inferior type, and grafted on scions of the real deal PB fruit.  It only took about 3weeks to push out new growth. 

I have less success starting cuttings, and find that grafting is funner, so I took the fun option.  I also like the strange tricks a rootstock can play, when pairing species for grafting...Like dwarfism, increased vigor, and resistance to poor growing conditions (like improper ph).

I will try to share some pics when they heal.  I have plans to graft a bunch more.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Hi Adam,
Your are always experimenting Good to know they are easy to graft

Looking forward to seeing them pics

[fruitlovers]

FYI,

these seem super easy to graft.  I had some seedlings of the inferior type, and grafted on scions of the real deal PB fruit.  It only took about 3weeks to push out new growth. 

I have less success starting cuttings, and find that grafting is funner, so I took the fun option.  I also like the strange tricks a rootstock can play, when pairing species for grafting...Like dwarfism, increased vigor, and resistance to poor growing conditions (like improper ph).

I will try to share some pics when they heal.  I have plans to graft a bunch more.

I had good success starting them from cuttings, at least with the B. armeniaca. Grafting would be nice though because you could put both species on just one tree.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

after looking at the plant at fruit and spice park, it looks like there could be a hybrid between the two species out there.  The one near the entrance to the park looked like it had features of both species, but the fruits were small...maybe because of drought and lack of care.

[fruitlovers]

after looking at the plant at fruit and spice park, it looks like there could be a hybrid between the two species out there.  The one near the entrance to the park looked like it had features of both species, but the fruits were small...maybe because of drought and lack of care.

Like what features?

[FlyingFoxFruits]

lance shaped leaves, but still very thick, not soft and flimsy like most common bunchosia.  Also fruits had a different shape than usual...still small, and not exactly like the bunchosia agentea fruit I've seen, and nothing like the armeniaca I've seen.

[fruitlovers]

lance shaped leaves, but still very thick, not soft and flimsy like most common bunchosia.  Also fruits had a different shape than usual...still small, and not exactly like the bunchosia agentea fruit I've seen, and nothing like the armeniaca I've seen.

OK, that's interesting. Doubt if it is a hybridization that occured in USA because argentea is very rare here. It would have to have happened in native land. Other possibilities are a) that it is neither species, or a hybrid, but another species.b) Soil or climate stresses can sometimes also cause irregular shaped leaves. c) could just be a mutation of armeniaca.

[stressbaby]

Steven,

Don't worry about the chloritic leaves!

They all seem to grow out of this condition, unlike some myrciaria species.

I hope you enjoy them (I know you will!)

This is reassuring.  I have a seedling exhibiting same behavior.

Does either species fruit in container?

[FlyingFoxFruits]

they both will fruit in a pot easily,

but they will become large enough to require a 25gal (at least) in about 8yrs with proper care.

they are very amenable to root pruning and branch pruning.  It's a great choice for zone pushers, and container bound growers.

Steven,

Don't worry about the chloritic leaves!

They all seem to grow out of this condition, unlike some myrciaria species.

I hope you enjoy them (I know you will!)

This is reassuring.  I have a seedling exhibiting same behavior.

Does either species fruit in container?