Fruits name starts with the letter " A "

Abiu fruit, Acai fruit


1. Abiu  Fruit 

Abiu  Fruit - Emperor's Golden Fruit

Abiu is an attractive, bright yellow fruit with a sweet, caramel flavoured, creamy-white pulp.

The fruit is round to oval in shape, sometimes pointed, with smooth bright yellow skin. It has creamy sweet, succulent flesh which tastes like mango mixes with persimmon. Cut in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. A young grafted plant grows in abundant sun light can expect first harvest in about 18 months. It is a hardy plant and needs very little care. It bears fruits all year round. This is a garden plant, it provides shade as well as fruits to eat. The tree is best grown in the ground as the roots are 'friendly'. It does not damage adjacent cemented area after years of growing.

It has successfully grown and marketed the fruit in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The fruit was renamed “Wong Kum Kuo” which means Emperor’s Golden Fruit and it was very well received by consumers in the region.

Abiu fruit tree originates from the Amazon. 

This fruit is a berry, with a smooth, leathery skin, 3-5 mm thick, containing an irritant latex when the fruit is green. When mature the fruit turns bright yellow. It varies in shape from ellipsoidal to spherical and may have a pointed end (nipple). It is 60-100 mm in diameter and weighs 100-600 gm, with some fruit reaching 1,500 gm. A yield of 10-30 kg/tree/year may be obtained from three year old trees and up to 200 kg/tree/year from older trees. At spacings of 200 trees/ha (10 m by 5 m ) yields of up to 40 tons/ha /year can be obtained.

The flesh is soft, gelatinous, translucent-white and each fruit has 1-4 large dark brown seeds. Abiu is eaten slightly chilled by halving the fruit and scooping out the flesh or by cutting the fruit into segments and eating alone or in a fruit salad. It can also be used for juice and in ice-cream. The fruit is rich in vitamins and minerals: thiamine 0.2 mg, ribiflavin 0.2 mg, niacin 3.4 mg, vitamin C 49 mg, calcium 22 mg and iron 1.8 mg.

 THE TREE

Abiu is an evergreen tree, reaching heights of five to fifteen metres in its natural habitat. The commercial varieties are usually less than 7 m high. It has alternate, longish, leathery leaves with a short stalk, arranged spirally on the branch. The flowers are small and white and appear singly or in clusters at the axil of the leaf or leaf scar, and a branch may have up to 280 flowers. They open in the morning. They are usually cross pollinated by insects. In Queensland (Queensland is a state of Australia)  flowering occurs three times a year and may overlap with fruit set, but in the Northern Territory two flowerings are usual, in February-March and July-August. Abiu does not appear to need a dry period to trigger flowering.

The tree grows best in tropical areas and in places that have a warm moist climate all year long. Propagation is nearly always by seeds. The new seeds will germinate quickly if they are fresh. After the seeds are planted, the tree will bear fruit in three or more years. Grafting and air layering will also be used to reproduce the upper strains of the plant.

The tree that has just been planted will be fragile and needs protection from wind and cold weather. It only requires light pruning and should be fed frequently, but lightly.

For more information and images go to the link --  Abiu  Fruit

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2.  Acai  Fruit

Acai  Fruit ( acai berry )

Acai is a palm tree that grows naturally in Central and South America. This palm is particularly abundant in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and produces a fruit berries. The Acai fruit is a staple diet of members of indigenous tribes of the Amazon. The Acai palm and Acai berry fruit can be found as far north as Belize (Belize City is the largest city in the Central American nation of Belize ), where it grows in swamps and along the flood plains. The Acai berry has recently become an important component of the local economy in these regions. Since the rise of popularity of the Acai fruit, now the trees are grown specifically for harvest and export.

It is a small round black purple, grape-sized that is grown in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. The fruit has a single large seed about 0.25-0.40 inches (7-10mm) in diameter. Acai Berry ripe fruits are deep purple color, or violet, depending on the type of acai berry as well as its maturity, depending on the species and the exact conditions under which it is grown. The Acai fruit has a large pit which is about 80 percent of the mass. They grow on the trees that produce special called panicles of 500 to 900 fruits each.  The endocarp of the acai berry fruit takes approximately 80% of the fruit while the mesocarp that contains the pulp which is uniform thickness. For the Amazon people of Brazil, Acai Berries are a very important food component, it occupies up to 42% of the total food intake by weight and the juice and pulp of acai berry have been seen to be very useful fruit and is used in various juice blends, smoothies, sodas, and different beverages. The juice has also been used in a flavored liqueur.

 It is the fruit of a palm tree that grows in the Amazon rain forests of Brazil.  Two or three crops of fruit are produced each year.  The Acai fruit is loaded with antioxidants that protect health and give energy. In fact, it delivers 33 times more antioxidant power than both red grapes and red wine. The Acai Fruit also contains amino acids, important vitamins and trace minerals. Since acai loses it’s nutritional value rapidly after harvesting, outside the growing region, popular forms of acaí are frozen, dried or freeze-dried.  Several companies now manufacture juices, health drinks, and sorbets with these little berries (often times with other berries and fruits included with it).

For mor information and images go to the link -- >  Acai fruit



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