#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  Thai fruits

## hillbilly

Let's talk about eating. Something that we all enjoy and if you are like me you might partake to often.

The fruits of Thailand are rather unique. For many of us, we may have tasted such delights but can not grow the plants at the old home. For example these are the fruits often delivered to us from our local neighbors. :Smile:  


The coconut. Many Thai meals are planned around this fruit but I was not really exposed to this tree until I moved to Thailand.

Please feel free to add some fruits as we make our way through the jungle!

Now let's go to a local Thai market and see what is offered.

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## hillbilly

Now what do you think these pineapples sale for?

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## hillbilly

What is this fruit? And how the hell do you eat it?

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## El Gibbon

Pineapple,  B10 if your in Chantaburi  

Did a 'Tues. Market' run today, will have pix tomorrow.

E. G.

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## hillbilly

We have this. Anyone want to guess?

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## hillbilly

Sure this one is easy. But what is the correct price in dollars? :Smile:

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## El Gibbon

Dragon Fruit,  SLice open, top to bottom, peel off skin. Quarter and go for it is the way.

Has lots of little seeds like Kiwi Fruit.

Not bad.

E. G.

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## El Gibbon

The big greenies look like Pomelo, very thick skinned.

Tastes like and looks like grapefruit, but much subtler.

E. G.

EDIT:  The juice which you can buy in any store makes great
drinks with a "bit" of gin...

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## ChiangMai noon

I like the dragon fruit if it's quite sharp.
they often tend to be a little bland.
How do you test them for taste without eating them?

Also some are white inside and some are red.
I prefer the red ones but I'm not sure they actually taste that much different.

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## ChiangMai noon

I love those things.
What are they called and when are they available?
I get confused with my seasons.

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## hillbilly

How about these B35 babies?


More to follow... :Smile:  

And you?

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## lom

Just a quick snapshot taken in our kitchen.



They are close to their due date now so they have lost a bit of their
original colour. Yes, this is red bananas.

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## mad_dog

> How about these B35 babies?
> 
> 
> More to follow... 
> 
> And you?


_farang_ i reckons ... no idea what they are called in the West ... I call 'em poor man's apples...

I'm a rammbutan(s.p) knot man myself .... _liiiche_ (lychee) are pretty damn sexy too ... can't be long till they are in season  :Smile:

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## ChiangMai noon

farang is guava.
don't like it.

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## Little Chuchok

What is a "bakseedar" then?

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## Goddess of Whatever

> We have this. Anyone want to guess?



Pummelo from Phichit is the best.  :Very Happy:

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## El Gibbon

^GoW,

There's an auntie down here that would tear your throat out for that comment.   lol

It has always amazed me how Thai can be so particular about fruit. I have several Jack Fruit trees, two different species and the ms. won't touch any of them. ONLY one tree on the other side of the village is really good.

This is backed up by a neighbor who also has several trees. To me they all taste the same BWDIK. :Smile: 

So what happens with my fruit?????   Chicken feed for the neighbor across the soi, or fried for chips, which  BTW are quite good snacks.

E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

Fruit quiz: A grapefruit is actually a cross between what two citrus?

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## El Gibbon

This fruit was cut the wrong way. The top was buggy and half eaten by birds so I just lopped it off. It should be cut vertically and then quartered.






That is a jug of veg. oil at the very top of the frame. Know why it is there?

E. G.

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## Wallalai

> I love those things.
> What are they called and when are they available?
> I get confused with my seasons.


This fruit is called "salak" Salacca Wallichiana or snakeskin. They are red in Thailand when they are brownish in Bali. More infos here: FRUIT TREE DESCRIPTIONS

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## dirtydog

Dragon fruit in Chantaburi, originally the Thai dragon fruit came from Vietnam, now the Thai Farmers in Chantaburi make a fortune growing these.



The flower of the dragon fruit.




The fruit of the dragon fruit.

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## Anonymous Coward

> Fruit quiz: A grapefruit is actually a cross between what two citrus?


No takers, eh?

Grapefruit is a cross between pomelo and orange....

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## dirtydog

Pineapples next, believe it or not these don't grow on trees.

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## Anonymous Coward

I used to raise pineapple and I was always amazed at how many people had no idea how it grew. I used to propagate both from the shoots and from the fruit tops. The shoots would grow into a mature plant and bear fruit in about 18 months. The tops could take two years or more. However, most of mine were not in full sun (under mango, coconut, etc.) so they maturation process was somewhat longer.

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## dirtydog

Got to admit it was only till a few years ago that I thought Pineapples grew on trees, no idea where I got that idea from.

Onto coconuts and the flowers.




Baby coconuts.



And ready to eat coconuts.

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## Anonymous Coward

It looks like those are dwarf coconuts. These bear fruit after only three to five years; when the tree is only a meter or two in height. And, the trees stay relatively short.

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## Goddess of Whatever

> Originally Posted by Anonymous Coward
> 
> Fruit quiz: A grapefruit is actually a cross between what two citrus?
> 
> 
> No takers, eh?
> 
> Grapefruit is a cross between pomelo and orange....


I was going to reply but you have already done it.   :Smile:

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## JoGeAr

> What is a "bakseedar" then?


Bakseedar is Isarn/Lao for guava. Farang in Thai.

Baknat is Isarn/Lao for pineapple.

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## El Gibbon

Ok, here is another to be identified. I 'helped' (damn little actually) in harvesting these yesterday afternoon.



B3 per Kg to the wholesaler.  Hardly worth the effort but there is NO upkeep.

E. G.

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## El Gibbon

The "baby coconuts" gave me another idea.

Can you identify each of these immature Thai fruits?

1


2 A little hard to see, look for green stems with brownish blobs.


3


E. G.

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## donmeurett

I beleave in May each year they have a fruit festival in Rayong if you get a chance make the trip it is well worth it.
Beautiful Beaches also. Rayong Resort a bit pricy and a very beautiful placeto go for a few days. 

don

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## JoGeAr

> Ok, here is another to be identified. I 'helped' (damn little actually) in harvesting these yesterday afternoon.
> 
> 
> 
> B3 per Kg to the wholesaler. Hardly worth the effort but there is NO upkeep.
> 
> E. G.


These are either _ma kai_ or _ma keua keun_, two of the several types of eggplant in Thailand.

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## El Gibbon

And

The 

Answer =

Eggplant 


Is.






KLANG   WRong!  :Cool: 

E. G.

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## dirtydog

I have eaten them before, they grow on trees, white pulpy flesh inside, damn sure I can't remember the name though.

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## Anonymous Coward

They look like over ripe betel nut to me.

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## JoGeAr

> The "baby coconuts" gave me another idea.
> 
> Can you identify each of these immature Thai fruits?
> 
> 1
> 
> 
> 2 A little hard to see, look for green stems with brownish blobs.
> 
> ...


Backing off in the confidence here!!

1 or 2 I think is Jackfruit (_ka noon_)
3 I'm pretty sure is mangosteen (_mongkut_)

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## El Gibbon

joe
One out of three ain't bad but doesn't qualify for a greenie  :Sad: 

Mangosteen is correct for #3.

Good try.

E. G.

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## El Gibbon

DD they DO grow on trees...  :Smile: 

and no they are not beetlenut A C.

E. G.

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## benbaaa

I'm partial to the _sapodilla_.  (Had to look up the English name for it).  Wash 'em, slice 'em, take out the thin black pips and what you're left with is very sweet, juicy flesh with a distinctive taste, a bit figgy, a bit datey. 




I also love those green, crunchy slightly sweet and mostly sour mangoes that drop off my mango tree at the right time of year.



 :Smile:

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## ch1ldofthemoon

I`ve just arrived back from chiang mai,this week. I was pleasantly surprised to find `Starfruit` on sale there. This is a fruit I remember as a kid,while living in Penang,Malaysia.
 In 10 years of visiting Thailand(mostly the south),I`ve never come across them. I bought some,think they were 20 baht a kilo,but a bit on the small side compared to malaysia, but sweet and juicy.

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## keda

On my last visit to Chiang Mai we ended up at the local fruit/veg market, where 10kg bags of large clems were going at 60 baht, enormous bunches of bananas at 30, 10 kg red apples at 40-80 baht, 20 large lettuces for 50-70 baht, and other local fruit/veg at similar throwaway prices. 

The one thing no farang has excuses for in Thailand, is to end up with an inferior diet.

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## friscofrankie

> Ok, here is another to be identified. I 'helped' (damn little actually) in harvesting these yesterday afternoon.
> 
> 
> 
> B3 per Kg to the wholesaler.  Hardly worth the effort but there is NO upkeep.
> 
> E. G.


Are these loquats?  wonderful fruit; one of my favorites.  See 'em up here occasionally.

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## stroller

I just got some very sweet and unusually big "Poot Tsa" from Mai Sai:

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## stroller

A Jackfruit tree:


..and fruits almost ready to pick:

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## Bung

^ Got a bunch of them growing in my yard. Bloody horrible and the MIL always picks them and gets me to drop them off at her place in my truck which is fine but they all weep this sticky white shit that gets everywhere and is a real pain to clean off.  :Mad:  

Apparently they are ripe enough to pick when the leaves on the stem turns brown, those look ready as the leaves are gone!

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## El Gibbon

Sorry Frankie  NOT loquats.... 


Bung, in the pix below is the "solution" to the
stickiness when dealing with Jack Fruit.



Seems no one else has figured out the question I asked. 

It is a jug of vegetable oil, used for cooking, smear it on anything
that comes into contact with Jack Fruit. It prevents the 'Elmer's Glue'
effect.  The sap from the Jack Fruit tree and the outer skin is
a good short term glue.

E. G.

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## dirtydog

Pomegranates are not native to Thailand but are quite common here now, don't know if this one is ripe yet or not.

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## dirtydog

Sour Oranges, these are used instead of Limes, we have about 3 of these bushes, always got oranges on them  :Smile:

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## Anonymous Coward

^
Is this the Calamansi AKA Calamondin?

_manao wan_?

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## stroller

> Calamansi


"Calamansi" is Tagalog, taste similar to Lime, the flesh is yellow.

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## Anonymous Coward

> "Calamansi" is Tagalog, taste similar to Lime, the flesh is yellow.


But isn't it the same fruit as the one DD posted? English name Calamondin, Tagalog name Calamansi (also in use in Hawaii and the Western Pacific US territories), Thai name manao wan?

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## dirtydog

I think Nam Som Priao would be nearer the mark.

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## El Gibbon

Seems a lot of folk here don't know much about fruits. Of course I'm probably the only one living in the middle of the fruit belt where I get a chance to see this stuff.

First up is Durian



Each of these flowers will be one of those 'smelley' hard to open
"Do not/cannot take into hotels", wonders.

Next up is Longon (sp?) 



I know they are hard to see but the little green spikes have baby
Longon on them. An interesting side note; I assume a lot of us come from temperate climates where most fruits normally grow as an extension of the leaf, flower or stem. Here in the tropics we see fruits that come right out of the trunk or branch of a tree. Jack Fruit, longon, and durian are all this way, may be its due to the final weight of the fruit itself.

Lastlly we have this jewel, which as of yet no one has identified. Yeah, don't even bother coming back 5 minutes after this is uploaded with the " oh, yeah, I know that but........ ".



These guys come from this tree!



Yep, DATES!  

It turns out that BiL sorts his and only sells grad A and B so he got 6 baht per kilo. Bought rice and dog food for a month with one days harvest (Bt 600). No work involved other than harvest and fertilizer while he is doing the rest of his orchard.

This has been kinda fun, I will keep an eye open for other interesting stuff.

E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

> Yep, DATES!


I beg to differ. I don't think those are dates at all. Dates look like this on the tree:



I think that's a betel nut tree and those are betel nuts in the bucket. Just like here:



I used to grow betel nuts commercially, so I'm fairly familiar with what the tree and nuts look like.

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## El Gibbon

Mea culpa, mea culpa.... really have to learn to read Thai myself.

Translator and I obviously had brain cramps...  :Mad:  totally flocking up the transliteration.

oh, well  :dev+ang: 

E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

What Thai word did they use?

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## El Gibbon

Can't begin to repeat it now, I noted it was long though. I did ask, "you mean dates?"  and the ms. who speaks pretty good English says "yes".

I have a fairly decent (obviously not reknown for fruits) English - Thai dictionary and could find neither when I looked this AM.

Go figure, can't trust anyone nowadays.   :Smile: 

Was a bit confused at first but couldn't think of anything else that grew on tall skinny palm trees.  My New England upbringing I guess.

E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

Ordinary betel nut is just 'maak' (low tone), so I'm wondering if they were saying something else to you....

หมาก

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## JoGeAr

Date in Thai is _in-ta-pa-lum._

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## El Gibbon

Joe that might be it, I did note there were several syllables

E. G.

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## Mitchell

> ^
> Is this the Calamansi AKA Calamondin?
> 
> _manao wan_?


 
Calamansi is the Philipino name for a fruit that looks like a small lime and ripens to an orange color and is delicious green or ripe.  Green it is used as we use limes.  Calamondin is the botanical name.

Lime is a little larger and more tart. Larger tree and a larger fruit.

Lemon is yellow and larger yet.

All three fruits can be used to make delicious drinks.  Simply add water, sugar and ice.

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## Mitchell

How do you know when a pomegranate is  ripe?  How do you eat them?

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## JoGeAr

> Pomegranates are not native to Thailand but are quite common here now, don't know if this one is ripe yet or not.


Pomegranate! Is that what it is! Have two of these bushes in our soi. Often got fruit on them, but I didn't know what they were. Neither did my wife.

So, yes, how do you eat them??

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## dirtydog

Peel the skin and eat the inside, got a million seeds inside each pomegranate though  :Sad:  no idea when they are ripe.

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## Deaner

The Gf tells me these are Mabang Dong. There was a lady selling a bunch of pickled and sweetened fruits at the weekend market.

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## Thetyim

> Peel the skin and eat the inside, got a million seeds inside each pomegranate though


Those seeds are a pain.

Why not liquidize and strain it, then you have Grenadine

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## friscofrankie

Eat the things seeds and all.  The ones growing here never seem to get the bright red of the ones growing in California, but they do get ripe.  Grandma grew one (tree) in our back yard.

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## Anonymous Coward

> Eat the things seeds and all.  The ones growing here never seem to get the bright red of the ones growing in California, but they do get ripe.


I think they don't turn red unless the get some cold nights. Sort of like oranges turning orange. Still ripe and tasty but not the color you're used to.

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## stroller

> Why not liquidize and strain it, then you have Grenadine


How do you liquidize without mashing the seeds?

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## El Gibbon

The Thai name sounds like Linke or Linge or something similar. Apparently there is no English translation or one I know of.

This is a really wierd looking plant. Looks like a stand of bamboo but there are large "thorns" or spikes that spiral around the shoots.



These small pods are the early stages of the fruit.



This is a pod that is more mature, yet not ripe. Not the spikes on the bamboo like shoots and they are sharp.



Here is a single fruit again immature. Split open there are three segments each with a single seed. Apparently there are two types of this fruit, this is a 'second class' type.

Anyone have an idea of what this is?

E. G.

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## El Gibbon

This "orchard" if you want to call it that has two trees that I just might enjoy the fruit off.



These are baby Rambutan. Popped out within the last two days. Again its a fruit that can grow from anywhere on the tree.

While shooting the above I found the leaves below.



Note the rolled up leaf that is glued along the edge. This is a typical residence of a butterfly or moth larvae. Once the caterpillar exits it begins to eat on nearby foliage. Each butterfly/moth has a peculiar vegetation or two that they lay eggs on and use as nurseries.

I couldln't find the caterpillar but there was evidence on the tree of quite a few feasts taking place. It was fairly fresh as the dross was still a dark black color rather than a light brownish normally seen when the dross has dried extensively.

E. G.

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## stroller

The fruits aren't always perfectly shaped, part of today's lunch:

Pomelos(Som Oh) and Tamarind(Makham Thet)

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## stroller

Tamarind(Makham Wan):


And some Pappaya(Malagor) trees:

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## El Gibbon

Was out wandering around trying to chase down one elusive butterfly and come upon these Rose Apples (Chinese Apples??) in the back yard. Not quite ripe yet as they are still quite bitter/sour.



Too bad this place has been left alone without any real care. Obviously the "orchard" was done for looks rather than for production.. .What a waste. These are full of bugs and are badly scarred from some disease. That's what happpens without fertilizer, pesticide spraying etc.  

E. G.

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## El Gibbon

I have two apparently different pappaya trees in the yard.





Note the difference in color of the leaf stems. One is a darkish red/brown and the other is the same basic light green as the rest of the tree.

This is NOT a trick question  :Smile:   I would really like to know the difference.


E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

Are you sure the second one is not tapioca?

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## stroller

Yeah, the  leaves look similar.

Here some sweet Tamarind, the harvest season is on now:

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## El Gibbon

Have no idea if tapioca or not. I thought that tapioca was a root/tuber product. This appears to be starting fruit buds on the top of the stem very much like the pappaya tree next to it.

I also had thought that the fields of man(sp?) seen around this area were tapioca. When harvested the tubers are dried and ground in large quantities. You see acres of cement covered with this stuff with tractors running back and forth grinding and drying the stuff. 

You've surprised me with the tapioca response. Now I'll have to go and do MORE research on tapioca....  :Confused: 

Thanks to both AC and Stroller for the responses.

E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

> Have no idea if tapioca or not. I thought that tapioca was a root/tuber product. This appears to be starting fruit buds on the top of the stem very much like the pappaya tree next to it.


Young tapioca looks a bit like papaya and I couldn't tell from the photo. But, if it's got flower buds near the crown then it must be papaya.

There are many varieties of papaya. Plus, there are male and female plants. The male plants usually have a skinnier, rounder trunk, grow faster and flower earlier.

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## El Gibbon

Well, instead of running off and doing research on tapioca I did the "logical"  :Surprised:  thing first and looked at papaya. Duh!

It looks like this is a variant of some sort of papaya, I didn't realize there were about 20+ varieties of the stuff.

A picture on Wikopedia shows the same coloring as the plant I've in the yard, the fruit is much more round than the elongated other ones I've got growing. The flowers are the same style/shape and there appear to be both male and female flowers. Or at least bisexual, females grow close to the stem and the males are elongated with the she/males somewhere in between.

Did you know:?

"The latex of papaya plants is rich in enzymes known cysteine proteinases, which are used widely for protein digestion functions in the food and pharmaceutical industries.  ..... only the unripe fruit produce latex"

"      The antifertility properties of papaya, particularly of the seeds, have been the subject of significant evaluation using animal models, especially in India where there is interest in the development of a safe and effective oral male contraceptive (Lohiya et al. 1999).  A complete loss of fertility has been reported in male rabbits, rats and monkeys fed an extract of papaya seeds (Lohiya et al. 1999; Pathak et al. 2000; Lohiya et al. 2002), suggesting that ingestion of papaya seeds may adversely affect the fertility of human males or other male mammals.  "

"In India and parts of south-east Asia and Indonesia, consumption of papaya fruit is widely believed to be harmful during pregnancy, since papaya is believed to have abortifacient properties (induces miscarriage during pregnancy) or teratogenic properties (causes malformations of the foetus) (Adebiyi et al. 2002)"

Also saw where papaya seeds, dried and ground, makes a decent pepper substitute.

See what happens when I go off on a wild research case  :Smile: 

The three para in parens were taken from an Australian research paper:

The Biology and Ecology of Papaya (paw paw), Carica Papaya L., in Australia.  The article has all kinds of interesting data on papaya.

E. G.

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## Anonymous Coward

I used to raise papaya. The ones I liked best were what we called Kauai Sunrise. These were the long thin ones with the very pink and sweet fruit. No hint of the turpentine-like flavor that you get with the yellow varieties. We fertilized with pig manure and had incredible productivity until the Ringspot Virus hit. It somehow gets in the soil and after that I never had another papaya again. The plants would look great for six months, then the tops would wither and fail to thrive and then the plant would die.

This is one of the reasons growers want to import GM papaya seeds in Thailand.

One of the most successful commercial varieties was the Solo Papaya. This is a smaller, round fruit with yellow meat. It can be picked green and ships well. It's the one you normally see in supermarkets in non-tropical areas.

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## dirtydog

Moving swiftly on to Thai bananas  :Smile:  these are actually growing in a Chinese cemetry in Ban Chang, not sure if I would eat them  :Sad:

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## hillbilly

> Moving swiftly on to Thai bananas  these are actually growing in a Chinese cemetry in Ban Chang, not sure if I would eat them


This raises a question? How many kinds of Thai bananas are there? I want to say about 40. Is this guess correct?

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## dirtydog

I have about 10 differant sorts of banana trees on my land, so there has to be more than 10.

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## Wallalai

There are 300 varieties of bananas worldwide, and 30 originating of Thailand.

Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006 - BANANA (Kluay)

I've read an article some years ago in the Bangkok Post's Outlook section about a thai scientist doing research on this fruit and was very surprised to know that they were so many different banana species.

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## Wallalai

> The Thai name sounds like Linke or Linge or something similar. Apparently there is no English translation or one I know of.
> 
> This is a really wierd looking plant. Looks like a stand of bamboo but there are large "thorns" or spikes that spiral around the shoots.
> 
> 
> 
> These small pods are the early stages of the fruit.
> 
> 
> ...


Isn't it this fruit ?



As I writed in the post #20 of this thread it could be salak (Salacca Wallichiana ) also called snakeskin. Have a look at this link : FRUIT TREE DESCRIPTIONS

The trunk looks very similar to the one in your pic.

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## Wallalai

About the salak, this syrup has the same taste as the fruit though it's artificial flavour.

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## stroller

^ the fruit in Thailand is sour, the one I had in Bali is distinctively different - sweet with a firm texture.

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## El Gibbon

Wallalia

Sure looks like it doesn't it.  Ms is off to Bangers this AM to attend a funeral will ask her on return.

Even the immature fruit was slightyl sweet and the meat looked similar to the fruits pictured in the link.

Maybe she was using a local 'vernacular' when telling me in was Linge or whatever. She used to grab a few and eat on the way to school as a child.

Good spot!

E. G.

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## Wallalai

> ^ the fruit in Thailand is sour, the one I had in Bali is distinctively different - sweet with a firm texture.


This is the balinese Salak : 



The meat inside the thai one is more orange-brownish and sour as you said.

Interesting is that the balinese is self pollinating against the thai plants who need a pollinator as male and female are on separate plants.

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## El Gibbon

Here is one we are all eat at one time or another, that is if you eat curries at all.

I'm not sure about the 'fruits' but the leaves are in just about everything curried.



The reknowned Kaffir Lime.

E. G.

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## Curious George

> Eat the things seeds and all. The ones growing here never seem to get the bright red of the ones growing in California, but they do get ripe. Grandma grew one (tree) in our back yard.


Those having interest, here is a link to the Pomegranate Council. It has tips on preparation and recipies.

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## dirtydog

Now this tree I have no idea what sort of fruit it has.

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## friscofrankie

^dunno the Thai sister-in-law told me last night but...  
English is Noni.  Stinks to high heaven too.  supposed to be a healthy food, but smelling like baby-shit I doubt I am ever going to find out.

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## El Gibbon

Yes, Noni.... lots of scammers trying to sell land in Belize to grow this stuff. Reportedly will cure everything from Aids to Syphillus. Well, that may be a little exagerated but it is touted as being 'wonderful' stuff.

It is found using several names: Indian mulberry, nono being a couple. It is also known as 'vomit fruit", "starvation fruit" due to its smell and taste.

Noni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia     has a lot about this fruit originally from S E Asia but transported around the world.

When harvested it made into some sort of tea/drink with remarkable health properties.

The Elixer Of Life.  Lots of stuff on the web about it.

E. G.

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## dirtydog

Thai oranges are the big ones in this picture, the tiny little oranges are from China and delicious  :Smile:

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## JoGeAr

> Now this tree I have no idea what sort of fruit it has.


In Thai it's called _'look yaw_' or _'bai yaw_'.

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## stroller

Mahk Iyang, as they call in the North, size of a small apple, this one isn't quite ripe:

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## vito

this is season mango fruit very sweet and delicious

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## HermantheGerman

> ^ the fruit in Thailand is sour, the one I had in Bali is distinctively different - sweet with a firm texture.


Are you sure? There is a  difference in price and quality . The best I ever tasted was in Rayong, it was sweet and had a firm texture. The cheap ones are sour and mushie and taste sometimes like they have begun to ferminate.

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## HermantheGerman

> Originally Posted by El Gibbon
> 
> Yep, DATES!
> 
> 
> I beg to differ. I don't think those are dates at all. Dates look like this on the tree:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I once saw an old lady selling a fruit that looked similar. It was still green and thinly sliced, she was cheewing it. She said its like an amphetamine. She must have been cheewing them for many years cause her teeth were rotten and brown.
Was it this fruit?

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