Fruits name starts with the letter " W "

Watermelon

Scientific name      :   Citrullus lanatus

English                  :   Watermelon

Origin                    :   Southern Africa

Distribution            :    Now grown in most tropical and sub-tropical regions  of the world.  
                                 

Watermelon fruit is very large, smooth, and oval to round. The big round or oval fruits have a thick rind and a fleshy center, usually with many dark brown to black seeds. The skin can be solid green or green striped with yellow. The flesh inside is usually red, but color variations include type with yellow, pink, white or orange flesh.  Seedless varieties also exist. There are more than 1200 varieties of watermelon, ranging in weight from less than a pound to more than two hundred pounds, depending on the variety. [1 lb = 0.4536 kg ].

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus, family Cucurbitaceae) is both a fruit and a vegetable and plant of a vine-like (climber and trailer) herb originally from southern Africa and one of the most common type of melon. Watermelon is believed originated from the Kalahari desert, Africa. According to the researchers, the fruit is harvested the first time 5000 years ago in Egypt and according to ancestral beliefs at the time, the fruit is used for the burial of kings so that they get nutrition spirits in the afterlife. And from where the melon was brought round to the countries in the world. 

This flowering plant produces a special type of fruit known by botanists as a pepo, which has a thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy center (mesocarp and endocarp), pepos are derived from an inferior ovary and are characteristic of the Cucurbitaceae. The watermelon fruit, loosely considered a type of melon (although not in the genus Cucumis), has a smooth exterior rind (green and yellow) and a juicy, sweet, usually red or yellow, but sometimes orange, interior flesh. The flesh consists of highly developed placental tissue within the fruit.

Watermelons were primarily grown on lighter soils in regions with warmer climates. Watermelons were a warm season crops consumed as dessert fruits and the rinds were used for making pickles and preserves. However, with increased market acceptance, better edible quality and long distance shipping adaptability, the growth of watermelons has increased worldwide. Certain breeds of watermelons have been developed to be more specific to regions of the world. The breeding has resulted in improved quality, which involves maximum sugar content, excellent flavor, and firm flesh with deep red color pigment due to the presence of lycopene.

The sweet, juicy watermelon is actually packed with some of the most important antioxidants in nature. It reduces the risk of fatal diseases like asthma, atherosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and arthritis. Watermelon is rich in the B vitamins necessary for energy production. Watermelon is a very good source of vitamin B6 and a good source of vitamin B1, magnesium, and potassium. Watermelon has a high nutrient density due to the higher water content and lower calorie content than many other fruits. A rich source of vitamins A and C, watermelon also contains lycopene. Lycopene is a red pigment that occurs naturally in certain plant and algal tissues. In addition to giving watermelon and tomatoes their color it is an excellent anti-oxidant that can help prevent heart disease and some forms of cancer.

Horticulturalists believe that watermelons originated in South Africa, and their name refers not only to the fruit but also to the specific plant, Citrullus lunatus. Considering genus is important. Most melons belong to the genus, Cucumis, but watermelons are classified differently in the genus Citrullus. Citrullus includes a variety of vine plants that tend to originate in desert conditions. A variant on the standard melon is Tsamma melon, which has a much higher pectin count, and grows wild in the Kalahari Desert.

Watermelons and Tsamma melons both have a much thicker rind than do melons of the genus Cucumis. This is called an exocarp. What is inside the melon’s flesh is made up of endocarp and mesocarp, or the fruit’s flesh. Early watermelons, and still many today contain numerous black seeds that are also edible. However in the 20th century, seedless varieties of the plant were engineered, which resulted in watermelons with far fewer seeds, and what seeds are present are usually not as hard and pale white, as opposed to the typical black.

Since watermelon thrives in warm conditions, it’s not surprising that cultivation of the plant spread to places like Egypt. China soon became an avid cultivator of Citrullus lunatus, by at least the 10th century, though there are some that contend that the first Asian country to cultivate the watermelon was   Vietnam. When the Moors invaded China, or established trade, watermelon cultivation spread across Asia, the Persian Gulf, and thence to Europe, and Early American settlers were growing the fruit by the 17th century, though some suggest explorers of the New World introduced the plant to native Americans in the early 16th century.

Watermelon is the tasty and flavored fruit that we usually eat during summer in order to keep our bodies hydrated and refreshed, as it contains 90% water. This fruit has been used since ancient times by various peoples to protect the body from losing the necessary amount of water and from getting dehydrated during periods of drought. Watermelon was also used extensively when water sources were polluted. For instance, ancient Egyptians used to welcome tired and thirsty travelers that reached their regions with watermelons. They traditionally offered the visitors big slices of watermelons on trays in order to help them quench their thirst in the most natural and pure way. 

Climate and weather:  Tropical and sub-tropical climates. Watermelon prefers a hot, dry climate (daily temperatures between 22 to 30°C). It can survive desert conditions when groundwater is available.



for more information and images   -  go to the link   --   Watermelon  fruit





                                           

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Fruits name starts with the letter " J "

JACKFRUIT

Botanical Name : Artocarpus Heterophyllus Lam

Parts used: fruit, seeds, leaves and wood

The jackfruit can be found in India, Burma, SriLanka, Southern China, Malaysia, Philippines, Africa, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda and Surinam.

Jackfruit is believed indigenous to the rain forests of the Western Ghats of India. Later on, it spread early to other parts of India, Southeast Asia, the East Indies, and Philippines. Besides being planted in those areas, it is also planted in central and eastern Africa, Brazil, Surinam, Caribbean, Florida, and Australia, with some found in Mexico. It is even a common garden tree.

The jackfruit, Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam, of the family Moraceae. Jackfruit is known as kanthal in Bangla, panasa in Sanskrit, katahal in Hindi, pala in Tamil and chakka in Malayalam.

Introduction

  

The Jackfruit is an enormous fruit which is large and bushy found growing mainly in tropical areas which are seen to have Monsoon rains. The young branches of the jackfruit contain humid white latex. The tree leaves are oval shaped and deep in green colour, sleek and grow in clusters. Its unique male and female flowers bear in separate flower heads and are mostly seen in February and March months in a year (in India).

There are two varieties of jackfruits, one that is small, fibrous, soft, and mushy and the carpels are sweet, with a texture like that of a raw oyster. The other variety is crisp and crunchy.

Appearance

The fruit inside are pods or "bulb". Regularly referred to as seeds, these bulbs are actually, kinds of fleshy covering over the true seeds or pits, which are round and dark like chesnuts. Each bulb contains a seed that is covered by a white membrane, and there may be up to 500 seeds in a single jackfruit depending on the fruit's size. The fleshy part can be eaten, or cut up and cooked.

The evergreen trees are large, which can grow to a height of almost 5 - 15 meters, can bear as many as 250 fruits. The weight of one fruit varies from 3 kg to 30 kg. However, the average sized fruits are 1-2 feet long, and 9-15" wide. The exterior of the fruit is green-yellow, with small spiky knobs, while the flesh is custard yellow, with a banana-like flavour. The leaves are oblong, oval or elliptic, usually 4 to 6 inches in length and leathery, glossy and deep green in colour.

Tree of Jackfruit

Jack Fruit tree is a very large and evergreen tree in India. This fruit is one of the most popular and most important fruit of India, a little after the Mango and the Plantain varieties. The tree has come from the `Moraceae` family.

The tree has a solid crown of dark green leaves and the fruits hang from the branches, from the trunk and even on the roots of older trees. All parts of the tree contain sticky, white latex.

for  more information and images of this fruit  --  go to the link  --   Jackfruit fruit

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Fruits name starts with the letter " Y "

Yumberry

Other names: Yangmei, Red bayberry, Yamamomo, Chinese strawberry, Waxberry, China Bayberry, Japanese Bayberry.

The Yumberry is an evergreen plant which produces delicious round fruits of a purple colour. 

Yumberry fruit is mainly cultivated in the sub-tropical region of southeast China. It is a most wonderful fruit native of China. The fruit has been cultivated and used for nearly thousands of years in China. It has a bright-coloured round appearance the variety of colours are red, pink, white, and purple.

It is a subtropical tree grown for its sweet, crimson to dark purple-red, edible fruit. The tree is used as ornaments for parks and streets. It is also a traditional tree used in composing Classical East Asian Gardens.

Yumberry is a unique Chinese fruit crop. Yumberry fruit has a bright-coloured round appearance with juicy sugar-acid balanced flesh containing high nutritional value. The fruit is typically a stone fruit with delicate papillae - like pulp. Yumberry is harvested and marketed in a narrow window (June to July), and difficult to be stored.

Yumberry, also called red bayberry or yamamomo, is a type of sweet fruit native to China. Yangmei is very high in vitamin C, and the fruit has been cultivated for thousands of years in China, where today it is eaten raw, fermented into alcoholic beverages, and used to produce a distinct reddish dye, which is extracted from the bark of the tree. The main use for this type of tree is for ornamental purposes, in parks and gardens, but the red flesh has quite distinctive sweet and sour flavours, though half of the entire fruit is taken up by the huge seed.

The fruit is actually called yang-mei. The way the Chinese pronounce it in their dialect is 'yang-mee', which sounds similar to yummy. So Charles Stenftenagel (a garden products importer from Indiana), coined the name yumm-berry in 2003 when he was visiting a friend in Shanghai who owned a company that bottled the juice. So the name yumm-berry is relatively new. In England it is called red bayberry or Chinese bayberry.

Yumberry grows up to 30 feet (10 meters) in temperate environments. The Yumberry fruit ripens on the tree during the summer months, with a very small ripeness window of only a few weeks. The tree is an evergreen, with pale silvery bark and slender green leaves. Yumberry is often planted in areas with poor soil because it is a nitrogen fixer and will replenish the soil it is grown on. For this reason, it makes an excellent crop for fields that need long term nitrogen restoration, because it will produce profitable fruit while renewing the soil.

It is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree growing up to 10 m high, with smooth gray bark and a uniform spherical to hemispherical crown. It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. It tolerates poor acidic soils. The root system is 5–70 cm deep, with no obvious taproot.

The fruit is spherical, The surface colour is typically a deep, brilliant red, but may vary from white to purple. The flesh colour is similar to surface colour, or somewhat lighter. The flesh is sweet and very tart. At the centre is a single seed, with a diameter about half that of the whole fruit.

Yumberry fruit is, unfortunately, highly perishable. In China, it is often pressed into juice that can be transported or fermented, because it will keep longer than the delicate fruit. If consumers can obtain yumberry they should plan to store it under refrigeration for no more than one week, wrapped and kept away from other fruit.

for  more  information and  images of  this  fruit -- go to the link  -  Yumberry fruit

                                                                   

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Fruits name starts with the letter " P "

POMEGRANATE

Pomegranates:  “Jewels In the Fruit Crown ” , “ Jewel of Winter ”.

The fruit its name, derived from the Latin word ‘Pomum Granatum’ which translates as ‘ Fruit with many seeds ’ or ‘ Fruit full of  seeds ’.

Common Names: Pomegranate, Granada(Spanish), Grenade (French) and Chinese apple

Pomegranates originated in tropical Asia and have been grown for over 5,000 years throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The scarlet fruit pulp envelops numerous small and crunchy white seeds or red seeds. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa. The tree was introduced into Californiaby Spanish settlers in 1769. In this country it is grown for its fruits mainly in the drier parts of California and Arizona. Pomegranates are native to southeastern Europe and Asia and were grown in ancient Egypt, Babylon, India, and Iran.

Pomegranate is literally 'crowned' by nature with its beautiful leafing around the haft, but its real crown is constituted by the beneficial nature it has. Pomegranate has been celebrated throughout history: Egyptian papyri, Old Testament (bible), Old Greek Mythology, Roman history all have something to say about this wonderful fruit. Its very name derives from Latin pomum (apple) and granatus (seeded). Fruit full of seeds – precise description of this distinctive fruit.

Pomegranate is a widely cultivated fruit and its nectar is extracted for many commercial uses. An average sized Pomegranate contains approximately   100 - 300 edible seeds under its thick red covering. Pomegranate juice, nectar and extracts are a major raw material of health industry.

Pomegranate tree is a small tree; it is more commonly grown as a bushy shrub. The leaves are deciduous, usually glossy and dark green. The plant may have spines (thorns) along its branches. Its colourful, orange-red flowers and dense, bushy growth habit make pomegranate an attractive ornamental fruit.

The fruit may be yellow to bright red in colour, up to about 4 inches in diameter. The rind is smooth, but leathery, with a persistent, tubular calyx at the blossom end. The numerous seeds are surrounded by a pink to purplish or crimson, pulp which is juicy and subacid.

The pomegranate has been revered as a symbol of health, fertility and rebirth throughout history. Some cultures believed it held profound and mystical healing powers. Many scholars suggest that it was a pomegranate, and not an apple, that Eve used to tempt Adam in the biblical Garden of Eden (Bible). In Islam, the Prophet Mohammed recommended the pomegranate as a means to purge the system of envy and hatred. In Chinese, Hebrew, Greek and Roman lore it is regarded as a symbol of fertility and prosperity, and among the Japanese it was associated with certain pregnancy rites.

For centuries, pomegranates have been regarded as a treasure among fruits. In ancient times, the Babylonians would chew the seeds before battle, believing it would make them invincible. And the ancient Egyptians were buried with pomegranates. In modern times, the pomegranate is a popular addition to Middle Eastern, Indian and Iranian cuisines. In the United States, this "jewel of winter" as it's sometimes referred to have become widely marketed as a powerful health juice in the last couple of years.

Pomegranates can be shrubs or small trees that can grow from 6 meters to 10 meters high. These trees can adapt to living in containers so it has been an excellent choice for greenhouses. The pomegranate is one of the first five cultivated fruits in the world. The pomegranate is very high in potassium, vitamin C, and antioxidants.

For more information and images of this fruit  -- go to the link  -  Pomegranate fruit

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