Tropical Far North Queensland
Posted by Phytopath on Aug 22, 2011
I recently went on a trip to far North Queensland.
The idea was to sample seasonal tropical fruit and find out if some of these wonderful fruiting trees would grow in my warm temperate garden.
So with fingers crossed, a friend and I headed for Cape Tribulation where there was a tropical fruit farm that had fruit tasting and farm tours.
Some of the fruit that we sampled were soursop, longan, papaya, sapodilla, custard apple, yellow sapote, black sapote, red flesh dragon fruit and pummelo.
I apologise for using the common names but most people, in Australia at least, would recognise the common names and not necessarily the botanical name of these fruit.
I had tasted some of the fruit before but many were new to my tastebuds, and what a pleasant surprise.
The yellow sapote, also known as Canistel (Pouteria campechiana) was interesting to taste. The colour and texture of the flesh was similar to a hard boiled egg so I wasn’t sure what to expect as I slid a piece into my mouth.
I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The taste was sweet and a bit ‘earthy’ but worth going back for a second helping. The tree itself is evergreen, slender and erect to around 8 metres (in the tropics) with a very low tolerance to frost. I guess I had better forget about growing this one back home.
The Pummelo (Citrus maxima) was very impressive with its large fruit and pale pink flesh. The sk
in of the fruit is very thick and I must say, I was a little disappointed in the flavour which is very similar to grapefruit. I don’t think I will bother with this one.
Sapodilla (Achras sapota) was a fruit that I had never tried before.
The outside was somewhat furry, very similar in appearance to a kiwifruit. When cut open the flesh was a brown colour and didn’t look at all appealing. The taste however was almost orgasmic (almost).
I have a very sweet tooth and when the sapodilla passed over my taste buds it excited the sweet portion on my tongue. It taste just like cream caramel. Now, I want one of those.
The tree however has a very low frost tolerance. We are in the tropics after all.
The custard apple (Annona atemoya) I had tried before, and they are very nice. The flesh is white and soft, hence the common name of custard. This tree is semi-deciduous and grows to 7 metres. It does not need a pollinator and the tree has a moderate tolerance to frost. This one should grow at my place.
Soursop (Annona muricata) has a name that can turn a person off if they have a sweet tooth.
The fruit is almost heart shaped, green and rough to the touch with soft fleshy spines. Most books that I had read described the taste of the fruit as juicy and acid. I was not particularly looking forward to sampling this fruit.
But, in the name of ’get out of your comfort zone’, I tried some. To my taste buds the fruit was not acid at all, but rather sweet and very pleasant. Perhaps it was the particular variety that we were sampling, anyway, I thought this one might be worth having. Frost tolerance is low but there is a mountain soursop that is much hardier, tolerating temperatures down to -2 degrees celsius. I hope it tastes as good as the one I just tried.
Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna) is related to the persimmon. The fruit is green and picked when it is hard. It is then allowed to soften for three to six days. Once cut, you can see the dark brown colour of the flesh inside.
Another common name of this fruit is “Chocolate Pudding Fruit” and I kid you not, It taste like chocolate pudding. (I really want one of these). The fruit has about four times more vitamin C than oranges and is low in fat (a good reason to buy a tree). The tree itself is evergreen and grows to a height of three to six metres. It does not need a pollinator and crops very well. 
The frost tolerance of this tree is low but I don’t care – I want one.
