Moraceae Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosb.

| |	© W.D. Hawthorne

Other images of the same specimen :

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

Keywords in this picture :

• Foliage
• Bark
• Bud
• Fruit
• Lamina leaf blade
• Latex
• Vegetative
• Venation
• Slash
• Leaf parts
• Inflorescence
• Flower & fruit
• Woody stem
• Apical bud
• Leaf
• Plant parts

Places where this species can be found :

• Grand Etang - GRENADA

Species information

Interest
Artocarpus is derived literally from Green words for bread and fruit. There are two forms, the seedless known as breadfruit and the seeded as breadnut. Breadfruit is the main ingredient in oil down, the national dish of Grenada. Bread-nuts can be boiled curruied or roasted. Wild relatives in Asia e.g. Sri Lanka, fragments of fruits in Beli-Lena archaeological site dated 10,500-800. BC. 1789 Bligh sent by George III to Tahiti for British colonies in Caribbean, slave food. After collecting, mutiny partly as water used to keep 1000 breadfruit seedlings alive. After mutiny, threw seedlings overboard. Survived in a rowing boat, ended up on 2nd attempt, 1792, from Tahiti and Timor 333 to St.Vincent Botanic Garden (earliest colonial garden in the new world). 347 to Port Royal Jamaica. Yellow flesh cooked variously. Surplus can be stored in pits to ferment, and paste can be stored for a year before baking, contain more vitamins than other common starches. From New Guinea and SE Asia 2000BC to 800 AD. 26 varieties in Society Islands. To Africa in 1899 via Conkary, maybe all from a single tree. Latex can be used for caulking boats (Smith et al., 1992) The roasted flowers are rubbed on the gums in Java to releieve tootahcked (Burkill, 1935). Boiled yellow leaves can be used to alleviate diabetes and hypertension. Sap has been used in thre Caribbean as a plaster to assist healing of dislocations etc. The boiled leaf can be used to cure diabetes and hypertension. The reduction of blood pressure is said to be due to the presence of Gamma-aminobutyric acid in the leaves (Politi, 1996).

Specimen information

Collection Date
22/06/2001

Collector
W.D. Hawthorne, S.Cable & D. Jules

Specimen Number
623

Location
Roadside near Grand Etang.

Notes
Tree 16 m tall. BOLE: cylindrical with fluted buttresses at base to 1 m and wandering surface roots. BARK: smooth, grey-brown, prominant corky orange-brown lenticels 4-8 x 2 mm. SLASH: fibrous, pink, obscured quickly by copious white latex.

Coordinates
Latitude: 12.060000 N   Longitude: 61.420000 W   Altitude: 600