Jackfruit tree

Artocarpus heterophyllus

The jackfruit can grow up to 50 centimetres wide, one metre long and weigh up to 50 kilograms, making it one of the largest fruits in the world!

The jackfruit tree, which can grow up to 30 metres tall, develops its short inflorescences directly on the trunk and on older branches. This phenomenon is known as cauliflory. A single tree can bear up to 2,000 kilograms of fruit per year. The thick-skinned, warty pericarp is yellow-green in colour. Inside the fruit are up to 500 seeds, surrounded by yellow, firm-fleshed seed coats. In between these, the fruit walls form further yellowish flesh. The ripe fruits have a peculiar, bland-sweet taste and smell of rotten onions.

Distribution

probably native to southern India; now also has a wide distribution in South-East Asia, Australia and Madagascar

Use

a staple food: unripe fruit pulp is used as a vegetable (in curries); ripe fruit pulp is eaten raw, or made into syrup and jam; ground seeds are used in baked goods; roasted seeds are known as ‘marroni’; Wood for boat-building, furniture-making and the manufacture of musical instruments; wood boiled down yields the basanti dye used to produce yellow garments, for example the robes of Buddhist monks; leaves and milky sap are used as remedies for fever and to treat wounds

Habitat at the zoo:

Masoala Rainforest