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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