Some Interesting Fruits from Tropical Asia

FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 157 SOME INTERESTING FRUITS FROM TROPICAL ASIA WILSON POPENOE United Fruit Company, Guatemala City, Guat. When Dr. Wolfe invited me to present this couragements were so numerous and so defi brief paper before the Krome Memorial In nite that I decided we were too far north; stitute, I grasped the opportunity with par and I moved to Honduras, where, in a lovely ticular pleasure, primarily because it gives little valley three miles from the beach at me a chance to pay tribute to the memory Tela, we started planting mangosteens in of William J. Krome. It was my good for 1925. To give due credit, I should mention tune to see him frequently, back in the early that R. H. Goodell had already planted two days when he was developing an orchard at or three which he had obtained from Dr. Homestead. I felt the impulse of his dynam Fairchild at Washington, and they were pros ic enthusiasm, and I believe I appreciated pering. what he was doing for south Florida and for We obtained seed from Jamaica and from subtropical horticulture. In short, my admi Indo-China, and finally contracted for the ration for him and for his work knew no entire crop produced by an old tree on Lake bounds. Izabal in nearby Guatemala. We had no Yet many results might have been lost had trouble in starting the seedlings, and a year not Mrs. Krome carried on so ably and so or two later we began planting them out in devotedly with the work. I need not mention the field. We kept at it until we had about this, for most of you are more familiar with seven hundred, which together constitute, I the facts than I am. But I cannot miss this feel sure, the largest mangosteen orchard in opportunity of expressing the gratitude to the Western Hemisphere. Today most of her which all of us feel so deeply. them are in bearing — it took them about I have thought that you might be inter eight years to reach that stage — and I can ested in hearing something of the work we offer any of you who will honor us with a have done, these past fifteen years, with Asir visit during August, all the mangosteens you atic fruit trees at our little experiment sta care to eat. tion in Honduras. These results may not have People often ask me, "Is the mangosteen much bearing upon your own horticultural really as good as Doctor Fairchild says it problems; yet there are perhaps a few re is?" I shall answer this by repeating the in spects in which our experience may be use vitation: "Come and see for yourselves." One ful to you. of its virtues lies in the fact that they do In discussing fruits of the Asiatic tropics, not fill you up; you can eat mangosteens by one more or less automatically begins with the dozen, thus prolonging the enjoyment the mangosteen. Ever since Doctor Fairchild beyond that which you can achieve with any began telling us about mangosteens back in other tropical fruit of my acquaintance. the early ninteen hundreds, I suspect the Given a warm climate and reasonably good cherished but secret ambition of every horti soil, the mangosteen is not hard to grow. But culturist in southern Florida has been to it is a tree which recognizes no half meas grow this fruit. Many have tried it. I played ures. Either it thrives, or it does not grow with it myself when I was working with Ed at all, and when they are young, they are sus ward Simmonds at the Plant Introduction ceptible to sunburn, so that we customarily Garden in Miami about 1915, but the dis give them some shade during the first few 158 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY years. Once they reach four or five feet in the apple, the peach and the pear. But the height they go right ahead, asking no favors. lychee, in my opinion and in that of millions After the mangosteen, perhaps the Asi of people who live in China, will stand com atic fruit which enjoys the greatest reputa parison with the best of our northern fruits. tion is the durian. When Doctor Fairchild Nor is it one of those fruits which is excel was on one of his visits to Java — I believe lent only when prepared in the form of jam it was at the time he was exploring in the or preserves. The lychee is good as a fresh South Seas with Allison Armour in the yacht fruit, and it is good canned. Utowana — he sent us some durian seeds In Honduras we have an extensive collec by mail, and they reached us in good condi tion of lychee varieties. Many years ago the tion. From these we now have seven or eight Department of Agriculture sent us from fine trees, nearly fifty feet tall, and as beau Washington the parent trees of several Chin tiful as any trees you could wish to see. They ese varieties which Dr. Fairchild had intro bear well, but we have not yet noted any duced and which had been growing in Wash unbridled enthusiasm for the fruit among ington greenhouses until they were about to our tropical colleagues. Writers on Asia ad go through the roof. We have grown these mit that durians are an acquired habit. Avo trees and we have propagated them; but in cados are too, but I think the habit much general we have to get our fruit from other easier to acquire. When we had our first areas,, for our climate is too wet and our crop of durians, I gave several specimens to soils too rich for the trees to. fruit well. By one of our research men. He tried to eat removing rings of bark from the branches we one, gave it up, and then decided it would can induce flowering and fruiting, but one be a good joke to hang it under the bed of cannot keep this up indefinitely. one of the boys who occupied a room near Most of you know better than I do that the his in the bachelor quarters. This chap passed lychee succeeds in south Florida. All I can a most uncomfortable night, but in the morn add is this: it deserves to be much more ing discovered what was the matter. He said widely grown than has been true up to now. he thought it was a dead rat until he ex Speaking of the lychee reminds me to men amined the strange prickly fruit and real tion two other fruits of the same family, the ized that it originated in the vegetable king rambutan and the pulasan, botanically known dom. as Nephelium lappaceum and Nephelium muta- Doctor Fairchild will chide me for speak bile. Unlike the lychee, these two have proved ing in this disparaging manner about duri highly successful in our wet climates. They ans. My answer is the same as the one I have fruit at an early age and they fruit most just given regarding mangosteens; come and abundantly. Of the two, I think I prefer the see for yourselves. We are not expanding rambutan, which is almost as good as the ly our durian orchard. chee. I rather doubt, however, that either Having thus disposed of the two great mys will be found to thrive in subtropical cli teries in the field of Asiatic pomology, I want mates. A test will determine this. to mention a fruit which I feel has great pos Another well-known fruit of the Malayan sibilities, not only for the American tropics region is the langsat or lanzon, Lansium do- but for subtropical regions . such as south mesticum. We have grown some thirty or Florida. In fact, I think this fruit — the ly- forty trees of this species at I»ancetilla Ex chee — will generally prove more satisfac periment Station — as we call our little trial tory in south Florida than in Honduras. We garden in Honduras — and they have been are finding that the lychee does not fruit rather disappointing. They have not fruited abundantly in very wet climates. freely, and the specimens which we have har It is notorious that many tropical fruits vested have been disappointing in flavor. I are not really first class, when compared with have eaten the lanzon in the Philippines, and such highly improved northern products as my memories of it are pleasant though rath- FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 159 er vague. I don't know what is the matter speaking countries, Haden has become a popu with the ones we have grown in Honduras. lar favorite. Golek, we believe, is a promis ing candidate for high rank among the fav From all this you will gather that some of orites, and we are doing all we can to pro the famous Asiatic fruits have been disap pagate it and disseminate it. Incidentally, pointing in tropical America •— at least so 1 would like to see all of these Java mangos far as we are concerned -r- while others have tested thoroughly in Florida. I do not believe proved even more satisfactory than we had this has yet been done, but I may be mistak dared hope. This last situation applies par en. When one gets to Florida as rarely as I ticularly to the Java mangos. For years I have done these past fifteen years, he can had read of the fine mango varieties of Java not keep in touch with all developments.

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