The breadfruit tree tree ( Artocarpus altilis ) is a beautiful tropical tint tree . It produces light unripe fruits that are rounded and as large as an American football game . The yield ’s peel is warty . There are two forms of the fruit . One is sterile and lacks seminal fluid , and the other is a fertilize fruit with germ that has a more spiny - skin and is denote to as a " breadnut . " Breadfruit trees are grown in rime - free region ( U.S. Department of Agriculture wintertime hardiness zones 10 and warmer ) for shade inland or along the sea .
Origins
The precise beginning of the breadfruit tree is obscure , concord to Margaret Barwick , author of " Tropical and Subtropical Trees . " Historically it was cultivated for centuries in New Guinea , Indonesia , the Philippines and the southwest Pacific . Taxonomists today often simply view it aboriginal to the humid lowlands of Southeast Asia .
Size
A fast - growing tree , breadfruit will ripen to 60 to 70 foot tall and 80 to 90 pes panoptic . The branching canopy is full and rounded , supporting the evergreen plant leaf year round .
Features
This tree ’s leafage are extremely attractive – glossy jade green with pale yellow vena . Each leaf blade , up to 24 inch long , is oval but with many deeply emasculated lobes . The stocky and sound leaves can also miss lobes , such as a variety native to the Samoan Islands , according to " Tropical and Subtropical Trees . " Male and female flowers appear in summertime or winter when rainfall is copious . The distaff flowers ' ovaries become fruit with or without pollenation . Each yield is in reality a aggregate of many fused , tiny mature ovary call a " syncarp , " about 8 column inch in diam .
Significance
From an economical standpoint , the breadfruit Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is a vital component to life of native people across tropical southeasterly Asia and the Pacific . The tree diagram supplies timber and bark fibre as well as yield , edible semen and shade from the intense sunlight . One story associated with the breadfruit interest the HMS Bounty and Captain William Bligh . While he overcame mutiny in 1789 , he also pull off to carry breadfruits on board and introduce the food and plant from Tahiti to the West Indies in 1793 , as noted in " Tropical and Subtropical Trees . " Purdue University says grounds subsist that Gallic sailing master Sonnerat brought breadfruit trees to the French West Indies from the Philippines as early on as 1772 .
Food Use
The fruit is dull and potato - like in its blank bod and does not store long once harvested from the tree . It is rich in carbohydrate and vitamin , especially A and B. Once peel , the physique is boil , baked or roasted . If the fruit happens to be a seeded breadnut , the seeds are boiled and eat like chestnuts .
Potential Alternative Plants
tight related to and resembling the Artocarpus communis tree diagram is the jackfruit ( Artocarpus heterophyllus ) . This tropical tree is native to India with glossy ellipse leafage and warty , light green fruit that are even orotund than those of the Artocarpus altilis . Jackfruits be given to come upon a more oblong watermelon vine size and shape . In temperate regions , perhaps the immature fruit of the Osage Orange River ( Maclura pomifera ) could be regard as large green fruit . About the sizing of a Citrus paradisi or playground ball , Osage River oranges have a warty tegument that smells of citrus but eventually becomes pale yellow - green when ripe .
