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Image of a young Artocarpus heterophyllus plant
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Artocarpus
heterophyllus
(Nangka, Jaca, Jackfruit, Jak, Jak-fruit, Khanun,
Khor, Mak mi, May mi, Mit) |
Family: Moraceae
Light: Full sun
Height: 30-70'
Blooms:
Fruits: Bunches, delicious, large oval-shaped fruit with thin
green, scalloped skin. Allow fruit to ripe on tree. Oil your
knife before you cut the skin open as it oozed latex sap. There is
a central pthy core. The yellow, banana-flavored fruit bulbs are
very sweet and tasty, found burried among thick layers of pale
yellow perianths. You have to dig them out with your hands.
There is a big brown seed inside each bulb. The vitamin C-rich fuits makes a great dessert.
Seeds: Can be boiled or roasted, with salt added and eaten as a
dessert; they are also known to be a aphrodisiac.
Foliage: Fuzzy, shiny, leathery, green
Soil: Well-drained, keep moist
Water: Regular
Uses: Specimen, landscaping, hedges
Propagation: Seeds, grafting
Comments: Artocarpus hetprophyllus or Nangka or Jaca or Jackfruit or Jak
or Jak-fruit or Khanun or Khor or Mak mi or May mi or Mit is a stately
tropical tree that produces very many large fruits each weigh as much as
from 10 to 110 lbs. This tree tolerates humidity. When the
fruits are ripe, they emit a sweet smelling odor. Use a knife to
cut down the huge fruit. It is quiite an adventure when cutting
open the Jackfruit. Wear gloves to avoid getting sticky
hands. Depending on the size of the fruit, you may find more than
a hundred bulbs inside each fruit. Nangka fruits are also sold in
cans at Oriental food stores. I can never get enough of the delicious
fruits. In Sri Lanka, Nangka trees were mainly grown for its timber
which is superior to teak.
Artocarpus hetprophyllus is an excellent tree to have for the sunny
garden. This tree has many medicinal uses in the Orient..
USDA Hardiness Zones
: 6-8 |
