Breadfruit

Artocarpus altilis; also A. communis and A. incisus

banner
Appears in

By Elizabeth Schneider

Published 2001

  • About

Also fruta de pan, árbol de pan, and panapén (Latin American); fruit à pain (French West Indian)

If you chance upon this green bruiser in an out-of-the-way shop, where it may be idling in a barrel of water, or huddled stickily in a bin with its peers, you may wonder about it. Breadfruit is included here primarily to satisfy the curiosity of the intrepid food explorer.
For those hungry for history, few subjects provide such a wealth of myths, tales, paintings (Gauguin’s are the best-known), and poems as this tree, which is a source of shelter, food, medicine, fiber, timber, and latex. But the oft-told true story of breadfruit’s trip to the New World, among the most dramatic in the history of plant introduction, may have an edge over fiction. (And that the towering tropical tree is kin to figs and mulberries is science fiction to me!)