https://www.flyingfoxfruits.com/s/stories/flying-fox-fruits-and-the-naming-of-rare-fruitsOver the last decade, there has been an influx of new names being adopted the within the rare fruit community. A few that come to mind include, the "Red" Jabuticaba (Plinia cauliflora hybrid), the "Starcherry" (Eugenia selloi), and the "Pitombatuba" (Eugenia selloi x luschnathiana).
Before I began my nursery officially in 2014, I had started the process of acquiring new and useful rare fruit trees for my collection, as early as 2007. When I first started collecting it was near impossible to find any other variety of Jabuticaba, besides the most common form, "Sabara" (Plinia jaboticaba).
After conducting intense field research. reading many books on the subject, and most importantly the advent of the recently pubilshed manuscript "Brazilian Fruits and Cultivated Exotics" by Harri Lorenzi et al., I was able to form a scientific opinion that was based on a deeper understanding of recent discoveries within the genus Plinia. Which led me to the conclusion, that all nurseries in the United States had mislabeled all of their "Sabara" Jabuticaba trees as Myrciaria cauliflora, which designates an entirely different species, and much less common in nursery trade in the USA.
Further evaluation led to the conclusion that the "Precoce" or "Hibrida" variety of recent introduction to Brazil, had already been introduced into the USA, and was being sold under the moniker "Everbear" by Larry Shatzer at Our Kids Nursery, in Winter Garden, FL, since at least 2005. The name I began marketing the fruit under was the translation for the name given in the Brazilian Fruits book, which was "Vermelha" or simply translated as "Red".
From what I've gathered since, this was a mistake in the book, where they labeled both the "Precoce/Hibrida" and the "Vermelha" as different fruits, when indeed they're one in the same, and the "Vermelha" fruits were picked early, hence the red coloration, and misnomer due to the appearance when harvested. In short, the name "Red" jaboticaba was first used by Adam Shafran (me), when I started to popularize the fruit around 2010, in posting on the Tropical Fruit Forum, and giving speeches across FL to the rare fruit clubs.
The name has stuck, probably because the fruit doesn't get the same black color as "Sabara" and it can very readily be eaten early when picked with a red coloration. The fruit is actually non astringent, whereas the Sabara is astringent, thus the "Red" Jaboticaba lends itself to being harvested early during its red colored phase, before it reaches full maturity with a deep purple color, never really black like Sabara.
As for the Eugenia selloi, and the usage of the name "Starcherry" which has been widely adopted in recent years, I would like to let it be known, that the name was coined by me. Mainly because there is no credit given on the internet to me for this naming. It's meant to be used as a compound word, to avoid confusion with the "Star'" Cherry, which is a preexisting variety of Prunus.
Furthermore, the recent discovery of the Eugenia selloi x luschnathiana "Pitombatuba", was due to my efforts in growing both the Pitomba and Pitangatuba in close proximity for years on my farm. The crossing of the two species occurred casually, and the seedlings it produced were accidentally sold to nursery growers and wholesalers, some of which ended up realizing they had something special, only after being told exactly what they had, by me. I had predicted my Pitombatuba mother tree was a hybrid before it ripened fruits. I was able to tell by looking at the plant morphology, and confirm my hypothesis of this hybrid long before anyone else.
Hopefully in the future I can ensure that the impact I'm making in the rare fruit community is fully understood, and appreciated. Until the next new fruit is named, please stay tuned.
