Common name: avocado, alligator pear
Scientific name: Persea americana Mill.
Family: Lauraceae (Laurel family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics
Native to: Central America
Use: The fruits are peeled and eaten fresh in salads and in sauces. They may contain up to 30 percent oil. Avocado is the main ingredient in guacamole.

Avocados are known only in cultivation. They were probably selected from small-fruited ancestors. They were grown in southern Mexico 7,000 years ago.

Avocados were first planted as a commercial venture in the United States in 1893. Acceptance by U.S. consumers was slow, and avocados did not become popular until the 1920s. Their growth in popularity is attributed to an advertising campaign denying that avocados were an aphrodisiac!

Common name: banana, banane
Scientific name: Musa X paradisiaca L.
Family: Musaceae (Banana family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and part of the Subtropics
Native to: Southeast Asia
Use: Bananas are eaten raw or cooked. The leaves are used for wrapping food and making ornaments. Fibers can also be extracted from the stem.

Banana “trees” are in fact the largest herbaceous plants in the world. They are not true trees because they do not develop woody stems. Their “trunks” are actually the overlapping bases (petioles) of the leaves.

Large-scale importation of bananas into the U.S. began in the 1920s. Large areas of tropical rainforest have been felled to create banana plantations.

Common name: orange, lime, lemon, citron, grapefruit, tangerine
Scientific name: Citrus spp.
Family: Rutaceae (Rue family or Citrus family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: Southeast Asia
Use: Citrus is consumed mostly as fresh fruit or as juice. It is also made into preserves such as marmalade and used as a flavoring.

Oranges are the most important fruit to humans and have long been prized. They were carried by seafaring explorers, who needed to ensure a good source of vitamin C in their diets as a protection against scurvy during long voyages. Throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries, sweet oranges were a delicacy reserved for the affluent. The maintenance of orangeries became a status symbol soon after it was discovered that oranges could be grown in glasshouses.

Cool temperatures, not ripening, cause oranges to develop an orange-colored skin.

Common name: guava, goyave, guayaba
Scientific name: Psidium guajava L.
Family: Myrtaceae (Myrtle family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the humid Tropics
Native to: Tropical America
Use: Guavas can be eaten raw or made into juice, but because of their pungent taste they are most commonly stewed or made into jams, jellies, or pastes. In Thailand, crisp green (unripe) guavas are dipped in a mixture of sugar, salt, and dried hot peppers and eaten. The fruit is high in vitamin C.

There are over 100 species of Psidium, many with edible fruit. They are related to cloves, eucalyptus and allspice.

Common name: jackfruit, jacquier, po-lo-tan
Scientific name: Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.
Family: Moraceae (Fig family)
Plant part used: aril (fleshy covering surrounding each seed)
Where grown: mainly Indian and Southeast Asia, but also in Africa and South America
Native to: Western Ghats (India)
Use: Within the fruit, the seeds are surrounded by a yellow aril (fleshy covering) which is juicy and tastes like pineapple and bananas. The immature fruits are starchy like potatoes, and can be sliced and fried, baked, boiled, or steamed. Temples in Bali and Macassar were built of wood from the jackfruit tree, and the wood provides a yellow dye used to color the clothes of Buddhist monks in these countries.

Jackfruit is the largest of all tree-type fruits. Fruits can weigh between 10 and 110 pounds!

Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis, is closely related to jackfruit. Its fruit is starchy, like the immature jackfruit. Breadfruit, too, can be sliced and fried, baked, boiled, or steamed. When cooked it tastes similar to white potatoes.

Common name: lychee, litchi, lichee, leechee
Scientific name: Litchi chinensis Sonn.
Family: Sapindaceae (Soapberry family)
Plant part used: aril (fleshy seed covering)
Where grown: mainly southern China, but on a small scale elsewhere in the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: southern China
Use: The sweet lychee “fruit” are eaten fresh, canned, or dried.

The edible portion of the lychee is the aril, a juicy, fleshy covering that surrounds the seed. The aril is covered with a rough, leathery covering that is easily peeled off. The consistency of the fruit is similar to a peeled grape with a taste and smell like muscat grapes and roses, but sweeter.

The lychee has been enjoyed for over 2,000 years in the Orient.

Common name: mango
Scientific name: Mangifera indica L.
Family: Anacardiaceae (Cashew family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: Southeast Asia (Indo-Burmese region)
Use: Mango is best eaten fresh. It is also used in preserves like chutney and in desserts. The ground seeds can also be used as flour.

Mangoes belong to the same family as poison ivy; the skin produces a sap that is irritating to some people. About 15 percent of our mangoes are grown in Florida; the rest are imported from Haiti and Mexico.

Common name: papaya, tree-melon, lechosa
Scientific name: Carica papaya L.
Family: Caricaceae (Papaya family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: Central America
Use: Papaya is eaten fresh or cooked, green or ripe. The ripe seeds are also edible.

Fruit range in size from 8 ounces to 20 pounds! Papain, an enzyme in the sap exuded from the skin of the fruit, is effective in breaking down proteins and is used in commercial meat tenderizers. The sap is also chewed like gum, used in cosmetics, and administered medicinally for digestive ailments.

Common name: passion fruit, marcuya, grenadilla
Scientific name: Passiflora spp.
Family: Passifloraceae (Passionflower family)
Plant part used: aril (fleshy seed covering)
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: American Tropics and Subtropics
Use: The fruits are sliced open to reveal the seeds and juicy pulp. The aromatic pulp is used as a flavoring for sauces, fruit salads, drinks, and sorbets. The seeds can be eaten or removed by sieving.

There are about 50 edible species. Passiflora edulis is now grown on the largest scale and is an important ingredient in many tropical punches.

Common name: pineapple, ananas
Scientific name: Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.
Family: Bromeliaceae (Pineapple family)
Plant part used: multiple fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: Tropical South America
Use: Pineapple fruit is peeled and eaten raw as a fresh fruit or made into juice. The juice can be used in marinades.

Wild pineapples are pollinated by hummingbirds, but cultivated ones produce fruit without the flowers being pollinated. The fruit contains a protein-degrading enzyme, bromelain, which can be used as a meat tenderizer. The enzyme will also break down the protein in gelatin and consequently, fresh pineapple added to gelatin desserts prevents them from setting. Cooking or canning deactivates the enzyme. Pineapple is in the same family as Spanish moss.

Common name: plantain, vegetable-banana
Scientific name: Musa X paradisiaca L.
Family: Musaceae (Banana family)
Plant part used: fruit
Where grown: throughout the Tropics and Subtropics
Native to: Southeast Asia
Use: Plantains resemble bananas and are eaten cooked.

Green plantains are very hard and starchy. They have little banana flavor and no sweetness. They are generally cooked in the same ways as potatoes. Plantains allowed to ripen to yellow and soften develop more banana flavor. They can be boiled, added to soups, stews, and vegetable mixes, or grilled. Fully ripe, black plantains are superb cooked like ripe bananas. They hold their shape better than bananas and absorb more flavor.

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