New Seeds!

(unripe biriba fruit: rollina deliciosa)
(photo credit: tradewinds fruit)

Got some seeds today for several interesting fruit trees - they will be going into some dirt in the next day or so. It will be interesting to see what might become of them.

The first three are all annonaceae - the family of plants that includes pawpaw, cherimoya, sugar apple, custard apple, soursop, ilama, biriba, soncoya, alligator apple, ylang ylang, and many other notable plants. With the lone exception of pawpaws (native to North America - Ontario to Florida), they are all tropical.

I was able to get seeds for sugar apples, custard apples, and biriba. I had already saved seed from several store-bought cherimoyas, which have been planted, but have not yet sprouted. I decided to do a little experimenting - some of the cherimoya seeds were planted fresh from the fruit, while others were cleaned and soaked for 3 days before planting. It will be interesting to see how the different treatment affects seed viability.

I also found seeds for an unusual legume called the ice cream bean, or pacay - inga edulis. The pacay is native to South America, with a native range that stretches through parts of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. They have some similarity with other tree legumes - like tamarind and honey locust, the (very sweet) pulp is eaten, and not the beans or the exterior of the pod; in the case of pacay, the nickname "ice cream beans" refers to the vanilla-cream flavor of the pulp, which has a marshmallow texture. Like mesquite and honey locust, they also have a tendency to spread and become invasive, though - as they are true tropicals - that won't be an issue here. Unlike most tree legumes, they can be kept in containers, though I've heard that it is a challenge.