Water apple
| Water apple | ||||||||||||
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Water apple ( Syzygium malaccense ) |
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| Syzygium malaccense | ||||||||||||
| ( L. ) Merr. & LMPerry |
The water apple ( Syzygium malaccense ) is a species of tree from the myrtle family (Myrtaceae). It occurs in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Its fruit has a red skin and resembles an apple. It can easily be confused with the related Java apple , but it is smaller and stockier than this one. The light, juicy flesh has a very high water content. Some varieties have a pleasant acidity.
distribution
The water apple is grown today in Vietnam , from Java to the Philippines , in Bengal , South India, Tahiti and Hawaii for its edible fruits. William Bligh brought the tree along with the breadfruit tree from Tahiti to Jamaica in 1793 . Since then, it has also been planted on the islands of the Caribbean and in parts of tropical America, especially in Venezuela and Brazil . The original distribution area can no longer be determined today. It is believed to be in what is now Malaysia .
features
The water apple is an upright tree with a dense, columnar or cylindrical crown. According to various sources, the height is given as 4.5 to 12 m or 7.5 to 20 m. The chest height diameter is 20 to 140 cm.
The bark is light brown and smooth or slightly cracked. The inner bark is striped brown. The sapwood is light brown.
The flowers are hermaphroditic, 5 to 7 cm in size, bright pink in color and very attractive. There are usually three of them on a short-stemmed inflorescence or on leaf-free sections of the branches in groups of two to eight. They have four sepals that are relatively wide and thick and have a round shape. The four also round petals are pink, orange or dark red, more rarely yellow or white. The stamens are 2.5 to 3 cm long, protrude far and have yellow anthers.
The pear-shaped fruits are red, less often pink or white. with a length of 5 to 10 cm they have a diameter of 2.5 to 7.5 cm. Their skin is thin and soft. The pulp is firm and has an apple-like, slightly sour taste. Each fruit contains only one, relatively large seed (18 mm in diameter).
use
The water apple is grown mainly for its fruits. They have a watery, fresh taste. When ripe they taste characteristically sweet. They are consumed raw or made into canned foods. Jelly is made from unripe fruits, and in Puerto Rico the fruits are fermented into fruit wine.
On the Caribbean islands and in South America, the water apple is planted as an ornamental wood or as part of windbreak woodland.
The wood is of little economic importance. It's tough and difficult to work with. The inner bark has an astringent effect .
Literature and Sources
- Peter Schütt, Ulla M. Lang: Eugenia malaccensis . In: Schütt, Weisgerber, Schuck, Lang, Stimm, Roloff (ed.): Trees of the tropics . Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-933203-79-3 , p. 319-322 .
