Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:26:27 GMT Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:26:27 GMT

Imbe is a tree also has a unique growth habit, with most branches coming out at right angles to the main stem, giving the tree an unusual form. Trees grow slowly and this makes them ideal for pot culture; in fact, many people grow imbe as a container tropical fruit for small landscapes. Imbes have separate sexes, so this means you have to have both a male and a female tree for good fruit production. Isolated female trees sometimes produce a few fruit, but they are quite small and for optimum production it's always best to have a male tree or a male branch grafted onto the female tree. Trees flower in the late spring and the fruit ripen quickly, often maturing in mid-to-late-June. Fruits are about two inches across, bright orange in color with a thin skin and usually two large seeds. A layer of orange pulp surrounds the seeds and tastes somewhat like apricots. from Gene Joyner, Extension Agent I IFAS Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

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The elegant, erect tree, ranging up to 100 ft (?EB) has copious gummy, yellow latex and opposite, short-petioled, thick, leathery, elliptic-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate leaves, 3 3/16" to 6" long, 3/4" to 2" wide, or much larger, with numerous lateral veins conspicuous on both surfaces; dark-green above, pale or brownish on the underside. Young foliage is reddish. The small, greenish-white or ivory flowers, densely clustered below the leaves, are 4-petalled, the male with 25 to 30 stamens, the perfect with 10 to 12. The fruit is oval or oblong, 3/4" to 1 1/4" long, smooth, orange or yellow, the thin, soft skin easily peeled. There is a little flesh, sweet or acid, adhering to the 1 or 2 seeds. The tree is native and common in humid forests on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Central America, from southern Mexico to Panama, up to an elevation of 4,000 ft from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

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This pseudofruit (or "false fruit") is a by-product of the cashew nut industry. The cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale L., is called marañon in most Spanish-speaking countries, but merey in Venezuela; and caju or cajueiro in Portuguese. It is generally bushy, low-branched and spreading; may reach 35 ft in height and width. Its leaves, mainly in terminal clusters, are oblong-oval or obovate, 4 to 8 in long and 2 to 4 in wide, and leathery. Yellowish-pink, 5-petalled flowers are borne in 6 to 10-in terminal panicles of mixed male, female and bisexual. The true fruit of the tree is the cashew nut resembling a miniature boxing-glove; consisting of a double shell containing a caustic phenolic resin in honeycomb-like cells, enclosing the edible kidney-shaped kernel. An interesting feature of the cashew is that the nut develops first and when it is full-grown but not yet ripe. from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

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'Bountiful' Passion Fruits

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The rambutan tree reaches 50 to 80 ft in height, has a straight trunk to 2 ft wide, and a dense, usually spreading crown. The evergreen leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, 2 3/4" to 12" long. The small, petalless flowers, of three kinds: males, hermaphrodite functioning as males, and hermaphrodite functioning as females, are borne in axillary or pseudo-terminal, much branched, hairy panicles. The fruit is ovoid, or ellipsoid, pinkish-red, bright-or deep-red, orange-red, maroon or dark-purple, yellowish-red, or all yellow or orange-yellow; 1 1/3" to 3 1/8" long. The somewhat hairlike covering is responsible for the common name of the fruit, which is based on the Malay word "rambut", meaning "hair". Within is the white or rose-tinted, translucent, juicy, acid, subacid or sweet flesh. from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

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The mountain soursop, is also called wild soursop, guanabana cimarrona, guanabana de perro, guanabana de loma, corossol zombi; corossolier batard, boszuurzak, araticum-ponhe and araticum de paca. It grows wild from sea-level to 2, 000 ft throughout the West Indies and southward into Peru and Brazil, and is cultivated in the Philippines and rarely in Florida. The tree somewhat resembles that of the soursop but has a more spreading crown and very glossy leaves. It is slightly hardier and bears more or less continuously. The fruit is nearly round or broad-ovoid, to 6" long. Its dark-green skin is studded with numerous short, fleshy spines. It becomes very soft and falls when ripe. The pulp is yellow, peculiarly aromatic, sour to subacid and bitter, fibrous, and contains many light-brown, plump seeds. from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

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The tree may be spreading or erect, to 25 ft often branching from the ground. It has aromatic, pale brownish-gray, furrowed bark and glossy, thin, elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate leaves, 2 to 6 in long. The new foliage is reddish or coppery. Solitary, long-stalked, maroon flowers, which open to the base, have small rusty hairy sepals, narrow, blunt, minutely hairy outer petals, and stamen-like, pollen bearing inner petals. The fruit is conical, heart-shaped, or ovoid globose, about 6 in long; may weigh as much as 2 Ibs. Generally, the fruit is studded with more or less pronounced, triangular protuberances, though fruits on the same tree may vary from rough to fairly smooth. The rind, pale-green to deep-pink or purplish, is coated with a dense, velvety gray-white bloom. In green types, the flesh is white and sweet; in the pink types, it is pink-tinged near the rind and around the seeds, all-pink or even deep-rose, and tart in flavor. from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton

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The soursop tree is low-branching and bushy but slender because of its upturned limbs, and reaches a height of 25 or 30 ft. Young branchlets are rusty-hairy. The malodorous leaves, normally evergreen, are alternate, smooth, glossy, dark green on the upper surface, lighter beneath; oblong, elliptic or narrow-obovate, pointed at both ends, 2 1/2" to 8" long and 1" to 2 1/2" in wide. The flowers, which are borne singly, may emerge anywhere on the trunk, branches or twigs. The fruit is more or less oval or heart-shaped, some times irregular, lopsided or curved, due to improper carper development or insect injury. The size ranges from 4" to 12" long and up to 6" in width, and the weight may be up to 10 or 15 lbs. Its inner surface is cream-colored and granular and separates easily from the mass of snow-white, fibrous, juicy segments. In aroma, the pulp is somewhat pineapple-like, but its musky, subacid to acid flavor is unique. excerpts from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton

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Jaboticaba cont. from previous photo... The smooth, tough skin is very glossy, bright-green, red-purple, maroon-purple, or so dark a purple as to appear nearly black, slightly acid and faintly spicy in taste; encloses a gelatinous, juicy, translucent, all-white or rose-tinted pulp that clings firmly to the seeds. The fruit has an overall subacid to sweet, grapelike flavor, mildly to disagreeably resinous, and is sometimes quite astringent. There may be 1 to 5 oval to nearly round but flattened, hard to tender, light-brown seeds, 1/4" to 1/2" long, but often some are abortive. The fruit has been well likened to a muscadine grape except for the larger seeds. from 'Fruits of Warm Climates' Julia Morton http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

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Jaboticaba trees are slow-growing, in M. tenella, shrubby, 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 ft (1-1.35 m) high; in M. trunciflora, 13 to 23 or rarely 40 ft (4-7 or 12 m); in the other species usually reaching 35 to 40 ft (10.5-12 m). They are profusely branched, beginning close to the ground and slanting upward and outward so that the dense, rounded crown may attain an ultimate spread of 45 ft (13.7 m). The thin outer bark, like that of the guava, flakes off, leaving light patches. Young foliage and branchlets are hairy. The fruit, borne in abundance, singly or in clusters, on short stalks, is largely hidden by the foliage and the shade of the canopy, but conspicuous on the lower portions of the trunks. Round, slightly oblate, broad-pyriform, or ellipsoid, with a small disk and vestiges of the 4 sepals at the apex, the fruits vary in size with the species and variety, ranging from 1/4 in (6 mm) in M. tenella and from 5/8 to 1 1/2 in (1.6-4 cm) in diameter in the other species. cont. in the next photo

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