Got to taste the Ndea fruit today, a fruit originally from Africa, and a new fruit to Hawaii. The seeds were originally distributed through CRFG, and came originally from Roy Danforth and Paul Noren's project in the Congo There were 2 fruits distributed by them with the name Ndea, this one and also Sarcocephalus xanthoxylon, also called Nauclea xanthoxylon. The latifolius is from dryland areas and is much better tasting. The xanthoxylon is from wet swampy areas and does not have much taste.
The fruit I just got to taste was a lot bigger fruit than i expected, a little bigger than a baseball. It has a very attractive ruby red color inside. The taste is mildly sweet with a crunchy texture. There is also a very mild bitterness, and some background herbal taste. Some think it tastes and smells like strawberry, but i did not find that to be the case. It has a nice complicated taste but generally mild tasting and not very juicy. I tasted it both with skin and without the skin. I think it was better to eat it with skin and all, it added to the complexity of the taste. According to the person i got it from the difficulty in growing this fruit is that it does not usually ripen well in our rainy area. This is the first year he was able to get well ripened fruits. So i think this fruit is more suited for drier areas like Kona, or on our east side better along the seashore where rainfall is a lot lighter. The tree this fruit came from is located in Puna at about 950 feet where it is quite rainy year round. It is a low growing tree but quite wide, umbrella shaped. The flowers are attractive also. It flowers several times a year. I will try to add this to my seed offerings soon. The seeds are very tiny, much smaller than the seeds of a strawberry.