Rose-Apple

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

rose-apple the unsatisfactory English name most commonly applied to any of a group of eugenia fruits (a name which has retained some currency although less appropriate after most of the species have been transferred from the genus Eugenia to Syzygium). Alternative names in English are no better, and it would be preferable to use the Indian/Malay name jambu, the meaning of which is explained separately, instead. The fruits do bear a superficial resemblance to apples, but do not eat like apples. Four principal species in the group are described below.