42 Tropical Fruits ... Many I've Never Heard Of

 From a 1947 report titled Tropical and Subtropical Fruits

The larger cultivated fruits of the northern temperate zone, apples, pears, quinces, plums, peaches and their varieties are not included in this listing. Instead, you will find the principal edible fruits of the tropics. Many have been cultivated since early historic time or before, such are the fig, the date, the pomegranate, spiny jujube, and lime. Scarcely known in northern Europe and not capable of being cultivated there, these did not reach our North American shores with the notable exceptions of oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit which can be cultivate in the South.

Of other exotic fruits brought from Mediterranean countries, the principal ones were figs and dates. Though introduced repeatedly in various places in the United States, it is only recently that they can be said to have been well established. The first figs grown in California were black mission figs brought by Franciscans from Spain or Portugal. Bananas, arguably the most important of all tropical fruits, made its first New World appearance in Hispaniola in the 1870s. The following pages show fruits that the average person has probably never of because they cannot be grown in temperate and colder climates.

One fruit that is familiar is the mango, virtually unknown in America a half century ago. A native of India and East Indies, this is the most widely planted of large tropical fruit trees. The numerous varieties now found in all warm countries differ considerably in quality as well as in color, size, and shape of fruit. The soft pulp of the ripe fruit is juicy, sweet, and aromatic. A mass of fine fibers connects the pulp firmly to the large, hard pit; but the fruit is readily eaten out of hand after slitting the thick skin at the apex and peeling it back toward the base. Usually eaten fresh, it is also made into jam, or cooked with spices and pickled while green as in mango chutney.

Next up, we have the breadfruit:

Breadfruit trees were introduced into the American tropics from the Pacific islands. There are two kinds, those having fruits with and those without seeds The fruit of the former is prickly, and only the somewhat immature seeds are eaten, boiled in saltwater or roasted like chestnuts. The seedless breadfruit illustrated here is eaten baked, boiled, or sliced and roasted, or even fried. Boiled and mashed it may be prepared and seasoned like macaroni.

A large and handsome tree of India, long grown in the Malayan region, the jackfruit was introduced in the American tropics, especially Jamaica and Brazil. It has simple, dark green shiny leaves and rough or prickly compound fruits of the size of watermelons, which grow on short stalks directly from the stem or old branches. The large brown seeds are edible when roasted. The fleshy sweetish yellow pulp about the seeds is boiled, and is esteemed by those who are not deterred by its heavy musky odor.

This oval fruit, as large as a small plum, has a soft yellow skin, white to yellowish flesh, and several black seeds. It is the product of a tree of the rose family and has a refreshing sweet-acid flavor reminiscent of apples or pears. Originally from central eastern China, it is now grown in many warm countries. It is well known in the Mediterranean region, where it is called Japanese medlar. All parts of the tree including the fruit are covered with a white or gray down.

This is the fruit of a large leguminous tree of India, now established in all tropical countries. It is recognized by its delicate feathery foliage and curved brown pods which remain hanging for a long time on the tree. The smooth seeds are imbedded in a brown pulp of agreeable sweet-acid flavor and are said to contain more acid and more sugar than any other fruit. The pulp serves for the preparation of a refreshing drink and is used sometimes to add bulk and flavor to guava jelly.

This fruit is cultivated in many places in the moist tropics of both hemispheres. The dark red flowers and fruit grow in clusters from the trunk and the older branches. The gherkin-like fruits are very acid, but pleasant when candied or cooked with sugar as a preserve.

A five-winged yellow fleshy fruit of a small Indo-Chinese tree introduced in the West Indies and South America. The fruit is usually very sour and is edible only when cooked with sugar, though an agreeably sweet variety exists, more commonly known as the Star Fruit.

This tall-growing tropical tree of the Chinaberry, or Mahogany, family is restricted chiefly to the Malaysian region, Siam, and IndoChina. The fruits are the size of pigeon eggs and grow in grape-like clusters from the larger branches. The fruit has a thick, bitter, rather leathery, inedible skin, which encloses from one to three segments of a white translucent pulp, and usually only one seed. The pulp is juicy, subacid, aromatic, and when ripe is sweet and of excellent flavor.

The jujube is the fruit of a small, thorny, slender-branched tree of the Buckthorn family. It has been well known in the Mediterranean region for at least 2,000 years and may have been brought originally from India. The fruit is smooth and ovoid, yellowish or reddish brown at maturity, of the size of an olive, with a thin skin covering a whitish or yellow sweet pulp and a hard oblong kernel containing two seeds. It is esteemed as a dessert fruit and eaten fresh, dried, or boiled in sugar. The jujube is the fruit of a small, thorny, slender-branched tree of the Buckthorn family. It has been well known in the Mediterranean region for at least 2,000 years and may have been brought originally from India. The fruit is smooth and ovoid, yellowish or reddish brown at maturity, of the size of an olive, with a thin skin covering a whitish or yellow sweet pulp and a hard oblong kernel containing two seeds. It is esteemed as a dessert fruit and eaten fresh, dried, or boiled in sugar. 

This fruit was the inspiration for "jujube" candy. The candy was inspired by the fruit's chewy texture and sweet flavor. Jujubes were first created in the late 19th century in the United States. The candy was originally made from a mixture of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin. The name reflects both the fruit and the candy's chewy consistency. Jujubes have become a popular candy variety, often found in theaters and candy stores. 

This fruit tree of the Indian archipelago is commonly planted in the East Indies for its large globose pendulous fruits. These weigh from five to six pounds and are famous for their combination of delicious flavor and disagreeable odor of decayed onions. The fruit has a thick fibrous rind beset with coarse pyramidal spines. Internally it is 4-celled, with from two to six large seeds in each division, covered with a whitish, buttery, and aromatic flesh or pulp which is the edible part of the fruit.

This ornamental tree of tropical Asia is cultivated in India, Ceylon, and the Malay region for its thick foliage, large white flowers, and remarkable fruits. After flowering the petals drop, while the persistent calyx again closes and grows to form a thick protective covering for the developing fruit, till at maturity the whole reaches the dimensions of a small or medium-sized grapefruit. The bulk of it then consists of the thick fibrous calyx within which the true fruit surrounded by brown stamens appears like a pale green tomato surmounted by the persistent many-rayed stigma. The fruit is aromatic but very acidic and requires cooking.

The mangosteen has long had the reputation of being the most delicious of tropical fruits. It is produced by a small tree, rarely over thirty feet high, native in the Malay Peninsula and cultivated in the warm and humid parts of the Old World tropics. The flowers are about the size of a wild rose and dull red in color. The rind of the fruit is thick and tough, dark red to dark purplish outside and pale violet within, and contains a bitter yellow juice. The edible part is the snow-white juicy pulp of exquisite flavor surrounding the four to six seeds.

This fruit grows wild in eastern Asia and in places forms veritable woods with wild apples and pears. It was well known to the ancient Egyptians and was naturalized throughout the eastern Mediterranean region as well as eastward to China and southward to Zanzibar and India. The trees are usually shrublike, with slender branches, small crowded leaves, and showy flowers. The fruit has a tough, leathery rind and very many seeds in four two-storied compartments. Each seed is covered by juicy red pulp (aril), which is the edible portion of the fruit. 

This fruit has grown in popularity in recent years due to its antioxidant qualities. There is even pomegranate juice.

A small garden tree introduced from Indo-China or Java and grown for the sake of its rose-flavored fruits, one to two inches in diameter, usually whitish or ivory-colored with crisp thin flesh and generally hollow with a single large spherical seed, or sometimes two or three, within the seed cavity. It may be eaten fresh, and makes a rose-flavored preserve.

This Malayan tree has been introduced into the Hawaiian Islands, Dutch Guiana, and Brazil, where it drops most of its leaves at flowering time. The bark of the trunk and naked branches then becomes covered with clusters of bright red flowers that last but a short time, then cover the ground under the trees with a rose-colored litter of fallen petals. In season, the pear-shaped fruits are conspicuous in tropical markets. They are white or rose-colored, with somewhat dry and insipid white flesh of rose scent. The fruit may be eaten fresh, but it is used chiefly for desserts and jellies.

This is a small ornamental Malayan tree producing clusters of pretty rose-pink or purplish-white waxy-looking pear-shaped fruit. The pulp is pleasantly sour-sweet but is usually too fluffy or pithy to be agreeable if eaten fresh.

This tall, very slender-stemmed palm usually grows in small clumps on low wet ground in the Guianas and the northern part of Brazil. Its flowers and fruit are borne in clusters immediately below a rather small crown of feathery leaves. The small spherical fruits are of the size and color of high bush blueberries when ripe. They contain a single round seed of the size of a large cherry stone. The soft purplish pulp and fiber are loosened from the pits by mashing or kneading in water. The result, after straining, is a thick liquid like blueberry mash, known in Brazil as "assai" or "assahy," and famous especially in Pará (Brazil) where assai thickened with farinha provides a cheap and simple meal.

This tall palm, with spiny foliage and a light-gray stem banded with black spines, produces moderate-sized clusters of peach-colored fruits as big as large plums or nectarines; each contains a sizeable one-seeded pit. The flesh of the fruit is starchy and when boiled becomes excellent food with a somewhat nutty flavor.

This is a luxuriant climbing aroid of Mexico and Central America, commonly planted in greenhouses and in most tropical countries for the ornamental appearance of its large incised and perforated leaves. Its cone-like fruits, eight to ten inches long, appear in the axils of the leaves. They are edible when ripe and have then a pleasant pineapple-like flavor.

This small tree with simple oblong leaves has fruits shaped roughly like large blunt pine-cones with thick, gray-green or yellow scales. The fruit is easily split or broken when ripe, and is seen to have numerous dark brown glossy seeds imbedded in the creamcolored, very sweet pulp. It is always eaten fresh. The tree is native from southern Florida throughout the Caribbean.

This large West Indian fruit of characteristic spiny appearance is widely planted in the tropics. It is edible only when thoroughly ripe and the skin begins to blacken. When the large rough fruit, which may attain a weight of 8 to 10 pounds, becomes soft and juicy, it is easily split. The very white, somewhat cottony pulp then is seen to consist of many equal divisions, each with a large brown seed. Transferred to a pitcher the aromatic pulp of a ripe soursop readily parts with its juice, yielding an excellent lemonade-like beverage.

This glossy-leaved small shrub grows on sandy seashores from southern Florida and the West Indies to Brazil. The fruit is about the size of a plum, dark red to purplish in color and often wrinkled when ripe, with a large pit. The sparse white pulp is somewhat cottony in texture and subacid in taste. The fruit is insipid or apt to be astringent and is generally not much esteemed though it does make an excellent conserve (jam).

These are trees of the Bean family with flowers in small white or pink tassels, and the once-pinnate leaf usually with a winged midrib. There are numerous kinds growing wild in the woods of Central America, the Guianas, and northern Brazil. Some species are planted for shade on coffee plantations. Several species have pods of considerable size, with the seeds enveloped in a frothy, sometimes cottony mass of glistening white pulp that is edible, sweet, and of agreeable flavor.

This is the fruit of a medium-sized spreading tree with pale bark and palmate leaves, common in the highlands of Mexico and Central America and planted there and throughout the Caribbean regions. The yellow-green fruit, of about the size of a small orange, has a thin skin, and a bright. yellow soft juicy pulp of pleasant taste, which encloses three to five large seeds. In some places, the fruit has the reputation of being injurious to health, and it is therefore called matasano (roughly translates to "killer" or "murderer").

This is a shrub or small tree with simple thin shiny leaves in pairs and small delicate clusters of white or pinkish flowers. The fruit is cherry-like but three-lobed, with three parchment-like one-seeded pits. It is thin-skinned, juicy and edible, pleasantly aromatic but acidic in its natural state but improved by cooking with sugar. It is used also to prepare a lemonade-like drink.

This low or medium sized tree abounds in wild state in many parts of Brazil and is planted in many other tropical countries. The fruit is peculiar. Its soft edible part is greatly thickened and pear-shaped, pulpy and red or yellow when ripe. This bears at its tip a hard green kidney-shaped nut, smooth, shiny, green or brown according to its stage of maturity. The nut encloses one seed, the cashew nut of commerce, which becomes edible when roasted. Its green hull contains resinous irritant poison that will blister lips and tongue like poison ivy. This poison is destroyed by heat when the nuts are roasted. The pear-shaped fruit is juicy, sweet-acid, and astringent. It is eaten fresh or made into a preserve. 

I have personal experience with this fruit, having purchased the juice and, course, I love cashews. 

This Amazonian relative of the cacao bears its flowers and pods on the leafy branches instead of on the trunk. The large pods are of dark brown color and are more woody than cacao pods. They contain a mass of large seeds, similar to cacao beans for which they are a good substitute. The fresh seeds are enveloped, as in the cacao, by a whitish gelatinous sweet-acid pulp which makes an agreeable flavoring for ice cream and sherbets and may be made into a jelly of pleasant flavor.

These are large forest trees of the humid parts of the Guianas and northern Brazil with characteristic foliage and large globose gray-green fruits each containing one, two, or three large seeds. The yellow flesh is smooth and buttery when cooked; it is eaten as a vegetable for its flavor with fish or meat. 

This compact, erect, tall-growing tree with dense, dark green, glossy foliage is common in door-yards in many places in the West Indies and northern South America. Its flowers and large globose brown fruits, four to five inches in diameter, are borne directly on the branches. The skin of the fruit is thick and rough, grayish-brown or russet in color; the sweet pulp is dense and firm, of a dark peach color. This fruit is generally cut up and stewed with sugar. 

This large tree of the humid forests of the Guianas and of northern Brazil has thick shiny leaves, large white flowers, and large yellow fruits with very thick rind of disagreeable taste. The few seeds are imbedded in a translucent white pulp which is pleasantly scented and of very agreeable sweet acidic flavor. It serves to flavor ices or ice cream, or is made into a distinctive and spicy jelly or marmalade. 

This large passion-flower vine, native of tropical America, is grown for its ornamental flowers and for its fruit.  The word granadilla is of Spanish origin and means "little pomegranate." The resemblance to the pomegranate consists in the numerous seeds, each of which is covered with edible pulp. 

The spiny cacti of all types — flat-jointed, climbing, erect and post-like, candelabrum-branched, and tree-like — all produce large attractive flowers which develop edible fruits, generally yellow or red in color and usually conspicuous. They furnish food of agreeable taste but may be dotted with cushions of minute spines which must be thoroughly removed. I see these at Woodman's all the time.

This small fruit tree of Brazil, cultivated and run wild as a shrub in many tropical and subtropical countries, is easily recognized by its smooth and pale flaky bark and regularly alternating pairs of opposite leaves on green, square terminal twigs. The fruits, often hidden by the foliage, are usually roughly egg-shaped and soft when ripe, with thick greenish yellow skin, strongly aromatic flesh, and numerous small seeds. The fruit is eaten fresh by those who do not object to the musky odor, which disappears in cooking. It is commonly made into a preserve, jelly, or paste, a standard dessert in the American tropics.

This shrub with slender branches and small simple leaves is sometimes grown as a hedge plant but more often for its excellent fruit, characteristically ribbed and orange to dark red or almost black in color when ripe. The soft juicy sweet-acid pulp is pleasant in flavor, though with a faint suggestion of turpentine. It encloses a relatively large pit, usually consisting of several seeds, slightly ribbed or irregular in shape. The fruit is eaten fresh, or cooked as jam or preserve.

This distinctly Brazilian fruit is produced by a small tree native and cultivated in the Atlantic tier of states from Rio and Sao Paulo northward. The small delicate white flowers and the grape-like round fruits, dark red to purplish in color, grow on short stalks from the thin smooth bark of the stem and branches. The fruit, about the size of marbles or larger, seldom over an inch in diameter, is glossy, rather thin-skinned, and surprisingly juicy, with a large round "pit" of one or more seeds. Its agreeable wine-like flavor is irresistible to small boys and a proverbial cause of their stomach aches.

This is one of the very commonest of tropical American fruits, originally from the Yucatan region, where the wild trees are tapped for their white sap which gives chicle for chewing-gum. They have a grayish or rusty brown slightly rough skin and a very sweet brown granular juicy pulp. Sapodillas are eaten fresh only. 

The best of them are esteemed for their sweetness and aroma, and prized as flavoring for ice cream and sherbets. 

This is the fruit of a tropical American tree related to the Sapodilla, native of the Caribbean region. The tree is readily recognized by its glossy leaves, which are intensely green and smooth on the upper surface, golden-brown and satiny on the lower surface. The fruit, as large as an average apple, is green or dark purplish with a thick smooth skin. It contains six to ten dark brown seeds radially arranged in the star-shaped gelatinous semi-translucent pulp. This pulp, the edible part of the fruit, is vinous, sub-acid, and of good flavor. When cut, the rind, like other parts of the tree, exudes a white sticky juice or latex. The fruit is eaten fresh only.

This is a Central American tree cultivated throughout the Caribbean region. The leaves, somewhat resembling those of the loquat but larger, are clustered at the tips of the branches. The large fruit has some resemblance to the Mammee and is known in some places as Mamey sapote. It is usually three to six inches long and oval in outline, russet or brown in color, and has a rough skin, an abundance of firm sweet reddish flesh of a somewhat spicy flavor. The single large seed has a characteristic appearance, being smooth and glossy but with a well defined rough segment. It has the scent of bitter almonds and is used for flavoring purposes. The fruit is made into a conserve or eaten fresh with sugar. It is much esteemed as an ingredient of fruit-salad.

This is a shrub or small tree with several stems, slender willowy branches, small paired leaves, and jasmin-like flowers. It is remarkable for its sticky latex, which produces rubber of good quality. The fruits are the size of large olives, egg-shaped and smooth, with white flesh and many small seeds. They are spotted or streaked with dark red at maturity, when they fall at a touch. The fruit should be eaten only when perfectly ripe; it is often kept a day after picking, since the immature fruit is considered to be poisonous. This is one of the most delicious and pleasantly scented of wild fruits.

This is a third or fourth rate fruit tree common throughout the West Indies and northeastern South America. Its dark green foliage is deciduous, and the bare thick branches display the crop of brown fruit. These are about the size of small oranges and edible only when over-ripe and soft. The brown pulp, with many seeds, has then a taste of sweet dried or fermenting apples and an aromatic odor objectionable to most persons. The fruit is improved in flavor when cooked with sugar. Fermented, it yields a pungent liqueur, esteemed in the backwoods country of Brazil. The unripe fruits yield an inky dye used by the South American Indians for body paint.

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Many of these are not even cultivated any more, or available only at ethnic grocers.