Miami street vendors

[FloridaGreenMan]

Here's a familiar type of street vendor that you see down in the Miami-Dade County, guys selling Mamoncillo (Spanish Lime) on street corners. This guy in Little Havana was selling small bags for $2. Guess he had to find a way to pay for his smart-phone!  Have also seen them selling oranges and mangos.   
 

[fruitlovers]

Here's a familiar type of street vendor that you see down in the Miami-Dade County, guys selling Mamoncillo (Spanish Lime) on street corners. This guy in Little Havana was selling small bags for $2. Guess he had to find a way to pay for his smart-phone!  Have also seen them selling oranges and mangos.   
 

Cool.  Are those fruits being grown in Florida or are they being imported from PR?

[FloridaGreenMan]

Here's a familiar type of street vendor that you see down in the Miami-Dade County, guys selling Mamoncillo (Spanish Lime) on street corners. This guy in Little Havana was selling small bags for $2. Guess he had to find a way to pay for his smart-phone!  Have also seen them selling oranges and mangos.   
 

Cool.  Are those fruits being grown in Florida or are they being imported from PR?

Those are no doubt from the Dominican Republic.  There are fruiting trees here but not very common

[bsbullie]

I have also seen them selling them in Ft. Lauderdale, on Sunrise east of the flea market.

[johnb51]

How do you like Spanish Limes?  What do they taste like?

[DRFixembones]

I live in Miami and see this all the time, strangely enough I've never tried mamoncillio/genep. One of my patients is from Antigua and absolutely loves this fruit..

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

I have seen Mamoncillo sold as a snack with salt at bus stops in a vid of Bizarre Foods.

What do they taste like? anything to do with limes or it's just a name?

Thanks for sharing, FloridaGreenMan

[SWRancher]

In my opinion Genip are similar to Longan except they are very sour and have too little flesh that sticks to the very large seed. To me they are worth eating but certainly not worth growing. 

[jez251]

I'd have to agree with Southwest Rancher. They are good, but not worth the wait fir this fruit. Plus, they are dioecious, so you need to have more than one tree. I have one, about 5 years old, but no telling what sex it is. Not sure I will keep it, though.

The taste is good, but there is so very little pulp, it's just not worth it. Would be for a variety with more pulp, though. Also, the big seed is dangerous for choking, especially kids.

The taste is like a more tart than sweet longan.

Jaime

[fruitlovers]

Steven, the really good cultivars of mamoncillo (aka quenepa) taste great....like a sweet/sour candy. Very tasty! Nothing like a lime. Spanish lime is a terrible name. Really refers to the look of the fruit rather than the taste. They look like little limes. Problem is the pulp sticks very stubbornly to the seed, seed is very large, so pulp to seed ratio is very poor. This is a fruit that needs a whole lot of improvement. With improvement it could certainly equal a longan in quality. Right now in my opinion it's far off from that. The tree is extremely slow growing, and takes a very long time to fruit. And they become giant trees. Most of the fruits sold are from wild trees. I have a couple of trees here and they are not at all happy with our high rainfall. Would probably do great on our dry part of the island. They grow wild in driest parts of PR.

[siafu]

 Hi,

 Selecting cultivars on something that takes 20 years to fruit from seed seems like a multi-generation project. Yikes.

 I often look at my quenepa/mamoncillo seedlings, which are about 4 meters tall, hoping to see a flower spike or something, but still no such luck. They are close to 9 years old, so I may still have to wait twice as much, assuming they will ever fruit, here,
 under plastic.  Outside, they barely survive the wet/cold winter.

 Talisia sp. / maybe esculenta also seems to take a long time fruiting. It's another lychee distant relative
 with scant flesh and a huge seed; i.e., tasty but frustrating.
 

[fruitlovers]

 Hi,

 Selecting cultivars on something that takes 20 years to fruit from seed seems like a multi-generation project. Yikes.

 I often look at my quenepa/mamoncillo seedlings, which are about 4 meters tall, hoping to see a flower spike or something, but still no such luck. They are close to 9 years old, so I may still have to wait twice as much, assuming they will ever fruit, here,
 under plastic.  Outside, they barely survive the wet/cold winter.

 Talisia sp. / maybe esculenta also seems to take a long time fruiting. It's another lychee distant relative
 with scant flesh and a huge seed; i.e., tasty but frustrating.
 

Siafu, the selection processes are done by grafting a lot of mature already existing trees onto rootstock, so doesn't take 20 years. Maybe more like 5 to 10 years max. Not much longer than any other plants take for selecting good cultivars. Now if they could come up with a seedless strain, as has been done with lychee!!! Or at least a strain that is freestone, then this could be a very good fruit.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Thanks guy's

Mamoncillo sure sounds like a great fruit to eat So, you have to eat alot of fruits, because of the low flesh to seed ratio, That sucks
They must be improved varieties in it's native range or maybe even a plantation that has these improved spanish limes...who knows
But, having to wait so long for them to fruit and on top of it, you require both sexes to tango No thanks Oscar, hearing they get really huge...the wind here, will definitely do some serious damage to the tree

I have also heard of santol being a frustrating fruit to eat because of the flesh sticking to the seed very tenaciously

[BMc]

 Hi,

 Selecting cultivars on something that takes 20 years to fruit from seed seems like a multi-generation project. Yikes.

 I often look at my quenepa/mamoncillo seedlings, which are about 4 meters tall, hoping to see a flower spike or something, but still no such luck. They are close to 9 years old, so I may still have to wait twice as much, assuming they will ever fruit, here,
 under plastic.  Outside, they barely survive the wet/cold winter.

 Talisia sp. / maybe esculenta also seems to take a long time fruiting. It's another lychee distant relative
 with scant flesh and a huge seed; i.e., tasty but frustrating.
 

Siafu, the selection processes are done by grafting a lot of mature already existing trees onto rootstock, so doesn't take 20 years. Maybe more like 5 to 10 years max. Not much longer than any other plants take for selecting good cultivars. Now if they could come up with a seedless strain, as has been done with lychee!!! Or at least a strain that is freestone, then this could be a very good fruit.

Who wants to send some mamon to China? 

[Felipe]

I agree it's a fruit that tastes very good! You don't eat it, but you suck the pulp, as the spanish name says: Mamar = to suck

I also agree it's a fruit with potential, but needs improvement. Yes it is dioecious, but there are also hermafrodite trees. In fact in my area there are some hermafrodite trees. Unfortunately I was not able to marcotting those damn things. And this is the other draback, the propagation. This species is hard to airlayer and harder to graft 

I remember reading that Bryan Brunner was working on a mamoncillo improving project in PR...

[bsbullie]

I agree it's a fruit that tastes very good! You don't eat it, but you suck the pulp, as the spanish name says: Mamar = to suck

I also agree it's a fruit with potential, but needs improvement. Yes it is dioecious, but there are also hermafrodite trees. In fact in my area there are some hermafrodite trees. Unfortunately I was not able to marcotting those damn things. And this is the other draback, the propagation. This species is hard to airlayer and harder to graft 

I remember reading that Bryan Brunner was working on a mamoncillo improving project in PR...

That is totally subjective cause I feel it is just the opposite.  Not saying that you or anybody else can't or shouldn't like it but I don't feel it has that much potential.  To ME, yo would have to "make" so many changes to it that it would basically be a totally different fruit altogether (it would probably also change some of the characteristics that make it so likable to some).

[fruitlovers]

Thanks guy's

Mamoncillo sure sounds like a great fruit to eat So, you have to eat alot of fruits, because of the low flesh to seed ratio, That sucks
They must be improved varieties in it's native range or maybe even a plantation that has these improved spanish limes...who knows
But, having to wait so long for them to fruit and on top of it, you require both sexes to tango No thanks Oscar, hearing they get really huge...the wind here, will definitely do some serious damage to the tree

I have also heard of santol being a frustrating fruit to eat because of the flesh sticking to the seed very tenaciously

Steven, yes you hit it right on the nail when you said "it sucks" because you do have to suck on mamoncillo and also santol to get the pulp off. I call them lollypop fruits. Santol is super fast growing by comparison.

[murahilin]

How many different common names can be used for one fruit in this thread. For someone who didnt know, theyd think we were talking about 6 different fruit. I'm going to add another name, chenette. That's that's they call it in Trinidad. I should add an auto correct to the forum now to change every other name to chenette.

[fruitlovers]

This fruit must have more common names than any other. It seems that every single country where it grows it has a different name. Problem is i don't like any of those names! 

[BMc]

Thanks guy's

Mamoncillo sure sounds like a great fruit to eat So, you have to eat alot of fruits, because of the low flesh to seed ratio, That sucks
They must be improved varieties in it's native range or maybe even a plantation that has these improved spanish limes...who knows
But, having to wait so long for them to fruit and on top of it, you require both sexes to tango No thanks Oscar, hearing they get really huge...the wind here, will definitely do some serious damage to the tree

I have also heard of santol being a frustrating fruit to eat because of the flesh sticking to the seed very tenaciously

Steven, yes you hit it right on the nail when you said "it sucks" because you do have to suck on mamoncillo and also santol to get the pulp off. I call them lollypop fruits. Santol is super fast growing by comparison.

Rambai is another one. Its actually a hazzard to your health as the seeds are small and when trying to suck the pulp off the seed it can fly to the back of your throat and get stuck in your air holes. Not at all a glamourous fruit to eat  But totally worth it!

[Soren]

How many different common names can be used for one fruit in this thread. For someone who didnt know, theyd think we were talking about 6 different fruit. I'm going to add another name, chenette. That's that's they call it in Trinidad. I should add an auto correct to the forum now to change every other name to chenette.

Which is really why we should stick to the botanical names in Latin - to avoid any misunderstandings.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Thanks guy's

Mamoncillo sure sounds like a great fruit to eat So, you have to eat alot of fruits, because of the low flesh to seed ratio, That sucks
They must be improved varieties in it's native range or maybe even a plantation that has these improved spanish limes...who knows
But, having to wait so long for them to fruit and on top of it, you require both sexes to tango No thanks Oscar, hearing they get really huge...the wind here, will definitely do some serious damage to the tree

I have also heard of santol being a frustrating fruit to eat because of the flesh sticking to the seed very tenaciously

Steven, yes you hit it right on the nail when you said "it sucks" because you do have to suck on mamoncillo and also santol to get the pulp off. I call them lollypop fruits. Santol is super fast growing by comparison.

Oscar,
 Lollypop fruit's is an awesome name for them...lol  I checked a pic, that Mike uploaded of Santol...that tree is freak'n massive

 Santol - Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm

[SWRancher]

Oscar,
 Lollypop fruit's is an awesome name for them...lol  I checked a pic, that Mike uploaded of Santol...that tree is freak'n massive

 [[/quote]

Don't know if I would call them lollypop fruit, a better fit would be Sour pop fruit. 

[fruitlovers]

Oscar,
 Lollypop fruit's is an awesome name for them...lol  I checked a pic, that Mike uploaded of Santol...that tree is freak'n massive

 [

Don't know if I would call them lollypop fruit, a better fit would be Sour pop fruit.
[/quote]

The good ones are not sour at all.

[SWRancher]

I must have never had good ones then Oscar. Hopefully I will have a chance to try some soon.