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Sapindaceae Blighia sapida Konig

Sapindaceae Blighia sapida
| | © W.D. Hawthorne

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Species information

Description
20m tree,; lveas mostly 4 pairs opposite leaflets, hairy below; fruits 6-10cm x 7cm, 3-lobed. Seeds 1.7cm black, with fleshy white aril.

Interest
Captain Bligh was the Biritsh navigator who first took breadfruits to the Caribbean. William Bligh (1754-1817), master of Resolution on Cook's 3rd Voyage and Captain of the Bounty. Navigated 4000 miles across the Pacific from Tahiti to Timor when Munity occurred. Later Govenor in New South Wales, where he was involved in another mutiny. Sapida refers to the soapy effect of the green fruits, which readily generate a lather for washing when mashed or rubbed in a bowl of water. The pounded fruits can also be used as a fish poison. (Dalziel, 1948). Blighia sapida was already in Jamaica by the 18th Century Akee is the name used by the Ashantis in West Africa, and is also used in the Caribbean. The fruit has a yellow aril around black seeds. The aril is eaten raw or in soup, fried, or roatsed. However the seed is attached to the inside of the fruit wall byu a fibrous raphe, which is highly toxic and must be removed before eating. There is in Nigeria a Yoruba proverb "he who knows how to eat the [Akee] knows to remove the deadly part". For many years a mysterious 'vomiting sickness' in Jamaica, was thought to be due to epidemics of yellow fever or meningitis, but was eventually found to be due to Akke raphe poisoning. Jamaican national dish, Ackee and saltfish.

Specimen information

Collection Date
05/12/1999

Collector
W.D. Hawthorne, C. Hughes

Specimen Number
363

Location
Rd parallel to but about 400m behind and to the SE of the Grand Anse beach, nr St. George's University campus.

Notes
Small tree, heavily branched and with a round crown to 6m ht. Twigs grooved; buds densely covered in orange hairs. Leaves: leaf rachis angular; upper surface - midrib and laterals yellow, flat, tertiary venation visible with a lens; lower surface - midrib and laterals prominent, a few tertiary veins visible. Flowers: receptacle, axes and pedicels yellow-green, petals and filaments cream. Fruits green then orange to deep orange-red when ripe; inside of endocarp densely white with woolly hairs; opening to reveal three large black glossy seeds. Cultivated in hotel garden.

Coordinates
Latitude: 12.010000 N   Longitude: 61.470000 W   Altitude: 5