There may be some confusion over its identity as many specimens original called D.grandiforus have been reassigned to other species.It has been recognised as a species for a long time.

From what I found and what DurianWriter wrote on her blog, the specie was called Boschia grandiflora and was renamed in 1958 after the genus Boschia was scrapped and all boschia members were moved under durio family. So that is that. This is the picture of the leaves and the flowers - looks pretty interesting because it doesn't resemble the regular durian species much.

Hi guys! So Mike recently posted pictures of rare durio macrantha, which are the first to appear on the internet and is a great addition to internet archives :-) Which leaves only one edible durio specie to completely lack a photo of its fruit and that is durio grandiflorus. I searched everywhere, but the only pictures I could find is pictures of leaves and flowers from last year, which are the first to appear on the net.
Is it because durio grandiflorus is so rare to find (it is called ghost durian, so maybe it is somewhat invisible? :-D) or is it due to the fact, that nobody really care much about this specie? From what I could read, it is possible to find it's fruit on the markets of Sarawak. What do you think?

Vik the fact that it is a small cold tolerant tree with fruit that has no aroma excited people over 20 years ago.Those who tasted it claimed it was as good as cultivated zibethinus cultivars like monthong. It was immediately placed at the head of the governments' recommended durian variety list for planting by commercial growers. Suddenly a series of cyclone and human frailty changed everything. In 2006 and 2011 the survivors got hit by 2 monster cyclones and D.macrantha seemed lost.Some survived.
Old timers involved with getting it here in the first place speak about this species in hushed tones out of respect and speak of it in the past tense like it has gone.
If I get seeds there won't be many and I might plant one and send the rest to somewhere safe and stable overseas.It needs some 'air time' and a chance to shine because it seems to have great characteristics.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you then :-) Hopefully, you would be able to get the seeds and continue the propagation of this amazing specie :-) I myself hope that I would be able to include macrantha in my durian collection one day :-)

I know this is an old thread but I have news. At least 2 fruit were produced by Durio macrantha on the only farm with fruiting trees. Considering how close to extinction this species is that is great news. While Professor Kostermans considered it his white whale for many reasons his wished that it be saved are still alive. Whether it is the closest thing to the ancestor of domestic durians, can really thrive in the subtropics, is fabulous to eat or has great disease and cyclone resistance is beyond the point when it just needs to survive.
They are almost certainly extinct in the wild from what I have been able to tell and this once great hope for durians is done with yet.I am trying to get hold of one of the fruit which will be les likely than a UFO landing in the driveway but the wheels are in motion and I am a wily fox.

Awesome news Mike! I thought I would never hear about durio macrantha again! Do you think you would be able to share some of the seeds by any chance? I guess they will be just few of them and too precious to risk sending right?
You say that this farm is the only farm growing macrantha?

Awesome :-) I went to see it two days ago and some of the flowers already dropped its petals and I could already see the seed capsules. :-) Looking foward to propagate some more wasabi by the seeds. :-)
And I am very curious about the taste. I think I am going to dig some of the root around autumn this year to taste it. :-)
You are welcome, I am glad that your thrives too. :-) I think you don't have to be afraid to put it in ground, it is very hardy. Mine got through the winter perfectly without any protection. :-)

It propagates by both ways by seeds and rhyzomes but you get much more seeds that new pups. I am just really looking forward to taste it as all the wasabi you can get here is just colored horseradish powder. 

I was worried to put it in the ground as not sure how frost hardy it is and do not want to loose it..

Jack I will try to fry the flower stalk next time I will try to get some seeds this time

P.S. thank you vlk for it, gladd to know yours is alive, too

I've got mine flowering in the garden too. :-) I planted it outside last year in autumn just before winter and it loves the new place, thrives like never. :-) Pushed so many flowers when I visited the place few days ago. I wonder if it can propagate itself through seeds? Or just through rhizomes?

May I ask how Duguetia stelechantha looks inside? From this photo, it looks like extremely small durian :-) But from what I see on Google, it is a family of Annonaceae.. So no durian relative. :-)

Hi Vlk,

I estimate to have a bunch of seeds by this weekend. My minimum order is 15 seeds if you are not in U.S.A or are in Hawaii or Alaska. Shipping is free to anywhere in the world unless you are buying 20 seeds or more. I am so glad that these seeds are getting spread around... I think this species deserves to be grown and consumed.

Thanks,

Hi Jack!

Awesome, I will order some then! :-) I will recheck this topic by weekend and will PM you. :-) So I need to buy 20 seeds to have free shipping to Europe?
I never tasted ice cream bean, do you think it would be possible to send one pod through mail? Would it last through the transport? I have no idea what life-span does this fruit have, but since it is a pod and not mango-like fruit or soft black sapote... :-)

I have trouble believing that they can be used as rootstock for durian. It is implausible.

Why do you think it is implausible? They are after all in the same family of Malvaceae and bear the similar signs.
The fruit looks like durian without pulp.

Hi guys!

In the place where I grow my tropical plants indoors, plants like jackfruit, mango, black sapote and other are thriving, but there are two which are unhappy for quite a long time - miracle fruit seedling and randia formosa. Since I got randia about two months ago, it started to grow these curled small leaves. I had that problem wih other randia seedling I got before and I never experienced it on any other plant.
Synsepalum on the other hand isn't growing at all. It is about three months since I recieved this little seedling seedling and since then, it haven't grew a single leaf. It created a tiny bud about two months ago and I thought it will finally start to push up some new growth, but nothing actually happened.
Do you please have any suggestions how to improve conditions for these plants so they can start to thrive? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Quote from: Vlk on December 28, 2013, 07:36:51 PM

I always thought about making a logo for Tropical forum :-) I am a graphic designer by profession, so if you would like I can create something or recreate some of designs/ideas of other members (making it vector compatible ect. :-) )

That would be awesome! We would really appreciate the help. I will shoot you a message.

I will be glad to help! :-)

Does anyone know please where to get seeds of this specie? :-)

I think it ought to be an automatic translation as Radoslav suggested - of either email client or web browser. I had no problem with mine confirmation - it came all in english :-)