Tarap—Artocarpus odoratissimus

Abstract

Artocarpus odoratissimus belongs to the family of Moraceae and can be found mainly on Borneo Island, especially Brunei, Kalimantan (Indonesia), Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysia). However, the fruit is now cultivated in other southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and the Philippines (Mindoro, Mindanao, Basilan, and Sulu). Nowadays, it has also been introduced into Australia, Brazil and some other tropical countries. Today it has been cultivated in many areas for its edible fruit. In the state of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, this fruit is found in secondary forests up to 1000m altitude on sandy clay soils. It is an evergreen tree with 25m in height and 40cm in diameter (trunk). The twigs are 4–10mm (thickness) with long yellow to red hair. The dark green leaves are large with 16–50cm (long) and 11–28cm (wide) in size and the shape is round at the stem and narrower at the tip. The male and female flowers grow separately on the same tree and the female flowers grow in inflorescences. Each fruit contains about 100 seeds and the weight of each seed is likely one gram on an average. It is well known that the fruit is tasty, soft flavored and considered superior to both Artocarpus heterophyllus (jackfruit) and Artocarpus integer (cempedak).