A large evergreen, the jackfruit tree produces huge fruit weighing up to 27 kilograms (60 pounds) each. Growing from nodes on the trunk and old branches, the fruit is covered by a tough, greenish husk and consists of many small, yellowish fruitlets. A mature jackfruit tree can yield 200 to 500 large fruits each year.
Harvest and Use
The fruit is harvested both immature, as "vegetables" for curries, or mature for its sweet, waxy flesh. Seeds may be boiled, fried and roasted; the fruit can be preserved by sun-drying and smoking.
Fruit husks and leaves can be fed to livestock. The wood of the tree makes a top-grade timber for general carpentry, door frames and windows.
Jackfruit History
Native to India, jackfruit was spread northward by traders to Nepal and China and eastward as far as Papua New Guinea.
Today, jackfruit is so valued by rural Asian households that people call its source the "rice tree."
