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Yellow Mangosteen Atractocarpus Fitzalanii Randia Gardenia Seeds
Packet of 30+ fresh home grown seeds!
I picked up these guys on a road trip up north a few years back and I have been growing them at home myself ever since.
It seems they are a bit of a controversial bush tucker species with folks describing the taste as anything from “really quite lovely” to “disgusting” and “putrid”…
Having tasted them at all stages of ripeness I agree with all of those descriptions, and like most things it is ripeness that is the important bit I reckon.
When the skin is still yellow they are bitter but they have a very mild fruitiness.
Seems promising, but the bitterness overpowers any enjoyment and they are not really fit for food at this stage.
When softer and the skin gets a bit mottled they look like that would be the ideal stage to eat them.
Unfortunately at that stage they taste , ummm, not great…
Almost soapy, weird fudgy texture and sort of sappy at the same time and the mild tropical fruitiness is completely gone.
Three types of bad and a real disappointment.
I would not say putrid(that stage is still to come), but if I had tasted that expecting something nice, let alone something with a taste similar to a mangosteen, I would have been very very disappointed.
The next stage is the best one, and the cut fruit looks caramely like in the picture.
At this stage the fruit’s skin is a brown, quite soft, and when cut in half and squeezed lightly the fruit detaches from the rind and if you turn it upside down and give it a tap it should separate and fall out.
You would be forgiven for thinking it’s gone rotten just looking at the skin, but this is where it tastes best.
While it does not taste like any mangosteen I have ever eaten, it is good!
Sort of like an avacado x black sapote(chocolate pudding fruit).
It is rick, creamy and almost buttery, really nice, but more in an avocado type of way than a sweet fruit type of way if you know what I mean?
It is not the sweet/sour/tropical fruit flavour that most folks are expecting, much more rich and mellow.
Really good, but yeah, absolutely nothing like a mangosteen.
The stage after this perfection above is where you hit “putrid”.
The skin goes from brown to black, the centre ferments and smells mildly cheesey, and the oils that are now rancid not only pack a punch, they make washing the foul tasting curds from your pallet near impossible.
I tried it in the name of science, not really sure what I was hoping for, but I definitely won’t do that again…
So yeah, like everything, they can be really good if picked at the right stage.
If not, they are not good at all.
I would even say putrid is correct, but even so, don’t let that put you off!
An unripe green, or over ripe sludgy brown tomato, watermelon, banana, avaocado or anything never tastes good, same deal folks, just a bit more dramatic with this fella.
They are often sold as an ornamental species in their own right due to the masses of beautiful white flowers they get.
I didn’t get pics as it was the wrong time of year but having smelt them before I have to say, they really smell lovely.
Just like the imported Gardenias do.
Known by heaps of different names, Gardenia fitzalanii, Randia fitzalanii, Trukia fitzalanii, along by the common names of brown gardenia and the very very misleading yellow mangosteen.
Very cool little bushtucker tree.
It’s even said be be used as an aphrodisiac by some folks and if you know how I would love to hear from you.
As I say, these particular seeds were wild harvested on a recent roadtrip up north.
I have planted heaps and had a couple come up already(~3weeks after planting).
There was also heaps that had self-seeded around the bases of mother trees.
I’m told germination is reliable but quite slow with anywhere from 2-6months being normal.
That’s everything I know about these guys.
Wild harvested by me and the Mrs, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
