Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a rapidly growing tree that is widely planted in the tropics for its edible fruit and value as an ornamental and shade tree. It is of particular economic importance in the Pacific islands, where it is a staple or subsistence crop on many islands. Peterson (2006) argues that the development of vigorous hybrid Breadfruit cultivars led to a "Breadfruit Revolution" 600 to 1200 years ago that was a major driver of sociocultural evolution across Micronesia.
Breadfruit trees are often found in home gardens, in secondary forests, and along roadsides. The spherical to cylindrical rough-skinned fruit is 10 to 30 cm in diameter and 0.25 to 6 kg, with a yellow to green rind and a starchy creamy white to yellow pulp (starch content ~20%). Depending on the variety, seed number may range from none to many. Breadfruit is a "multiple aggregate" fruit (i.e., each fruit is formed from an entire inflorescence consisting of multiple flowers). Seeded fruits have a surface composed of greenish conical spinelike projections, each from a single flower. Seedless fruits have a smoothish surface honeycombed with individual fruits around 5 mm across. The glossy leaves are very large and deeply lobed, dark green and smooth above, lighter and distinctly veined below. I
Breadfruit is monoecious (i.e., individual trees function as both males and females), with separate male and female flower clusters--each consisting of thousands of tiny flowers attached to a spongy core--emerging from leaf bases on the same tree. Breadfruit flowers are cross-pollinated, but pollination is not required for fruit development. The bark of the Breadfruit tree is smooth and brown with warty lenticels; milky juice exudes from the bark when cut (a white milky latex is present in all parts of the tree).
Potted Breadfruit trees (seedless) were brought on the Providence to the West Indies (St. Vincent and Jamaica) from Tahiti in 1793 by Captain William Bligh as a cheap food for slaves on the sugar plantations (an earlier attempt by Bligh on the Bounty was unsuccessful, ending in the famous "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1789 upon leaving Tahiti). Around the same time, the French brought some Breadfruit trees to several other Caribbean islands.
(Little and Wadsworth 1964; Seddon and Lennox 1980; Ashton 1989; Vaughan and Geissler 1997; Ragone 2006)
The ripe fruits can be eaten raw when ripe, but are more commonly picked when mature (but not quite ripe), then cooked. Seeded varieties are most common in the southwestern Pacific. Seedless varieties are most common in Micronesia and the eastern islands of Polynesia. All the varieties elsewhere in the tropics are seedless. Seeds are dispersed by fruit bats and possibly doves and other birds.
Hundreds of named Breadfruit varieties in the Pacific Islands are propagated vegetatively. Depending on variety, age, and tree condition, fruit yield ranges from fewer than 100 to more than 700 fruits per tree, with an average around 150 to 200. In intensive cultivation, yields of 160 to 500 kg of fruit per tree per year can be achieved. (Ragone 2006)
Some Breadfruit cultivars are fertile diploids (2n = 2x = 56), but many are sterile hybrids or triploids (2n = 3x = 84) and must be vegetatively propagated (Ragone 2001; Zerega et al. 2005 and references therein).
Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) (=A. communis = A. incisus; nomenclatural issues and synonomies are reviewed by Zarega et al. 2005) is a rapidly growing tree (0.5 to 1.5 m per year under favorable conditions) that is widely planted in the tropics for its edible fruit and value as an ornamental and shade tree. It is of particular economic importance in the Pacific islands, where it is a staple or subsistence crop on many islands. Breadfruit trees are often found in home gardens, in secondary forests, and along roadsides. These spreading evergreen trees may reach 18 to 20 m or more in height, with a trunk diameter of 60 cm or more, but are more commonly 12 to 15 m tall. The trunk may reach a diameter of 2 to 4 m before branching. The spherical to cylindrical rough-skinned fruit is 10 to 30 cm in diameter and 0.25 to 6 kg, with a yellow to green rind and a starchy creamy white to yellow pulp (starch content ~20%). Depending on the variety, seed number may range from none to many. Breadfruit is a "multiple aggregate" fruit (i.e., each fruit is formed from an entire inflorescence consisting of multiple flowers). Seeded fruits have a surface composed of greenish conical spinelike projections, each from a single flower. Seedless fruits have a smoothish surface honeycombed with individual fruits around 5 mm across.
The alternately arranged dark green, obovate to ovate glossy leaves have a nearly entire margin. They are very large (typically around 45 cm, but ranging from 15 to 90 cm long, depending on the variety) and slightly to deeply pinnately 7- to 11-lobed (sinuses up to 2/3 or more of the distance from margin to midrib, with up to six pairs of lobes), with a large apical tip. In contrast to the dark green and smooth upper leaf surface, the lower surface is lighter and distinctly veined. Buds are pointed and hairy.
Breadfruit is monoecious (i.e., individual trees function as both males and females), with separate male and female flower clusters--each consisting of thousands of tiny flowers attached to a spongy core--emerging from leaf bases on the same tree. The male cluster is a cylindrical or club-shaped soft catkin around 15 to 40 cm long and 2 to 3 cm in diameter, yellow at first then turning brown. The tiny flowers, each with a single stamen, are crowded on the outside. The female flowers form elliptical or round light green prickly clusters around 6 cm long and 4 cm in diameter; the flowers fuse together and develop into the edible, fleshy portion of the fruit. Breadfruit flowers are cross-pollinated, but pollination is not required for fruit development. The bark of the Breadfruit tree is smooth and brown with warty lenticels; milky juice exudes from the bark when cut (a white milky latex is present in all parts of the tree).
Potted Breadfruit trees (seedless) were brought on the Providence to the West Indies (St. Vincent and Jamaica) from Tahiti in 1793 by Captain William Bligh as a cheap food for slaves on the sugar plantations (an earlier attempt by Bligh on the Bounty was unsuccessful, ending in the famous "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1789 upon leaving Tahiti). Around the same time, the French brought some Breadfruit trees to several other Caribbean islands.
(Little and Wadsworth 1964; Seddon and Lennox 1980; Ashton 1989; Vaughan and Geissler 1997; Ragone 2006)
The ripe fruits can be eaten raw when ripe, but are more commonly picked when mature (but not quite ripe), then cooked. Seeded varieties are most common in the southwestern Pacific. Seedless varieties are most common in Micronesia and the eastern islands of Polynesia. All the varieties elsewhere in the tropics are seedless. Seeds are dispersed by fruit bats and possibly doves and other birds. The similar A. camansi (from which A. altilis is believed to have descended by domestication) has oblong, very spiny fruits with little pulp and numerous large, light brown seeds (darker in A. altilis) and large, shallowly dissected leaves with 4 to 6 pairs of lobes. Artocarpus mariannensis has small, cylindrical or kidney-shaped dark green fruits with yellow flesh and dark brown seeds and small entire to shallowly 1- to 3-lobed leaves. Hundreds of named Breadfruit varieties in the Pacific Islands are propagated vegetatively. Breadfruit trees generally grow best in full sun and form the overstory canopy in traditional mixed agroforests, although young trees prefer 20 to 50% shade. Depending on variety, age, and tree condition, fruit yield ranges from fewer than 100 to more than 700 fruits per tree, with an average around 150 to 200. In intensive cultivation, yields of 160 to 500 kg of fruit per tree per year can be achieved. Breadfruit grows best in equatorial lowlands below 600 to 650 m, but is found up to 1550 m. The latitudinal limits are approximately 17 N and S, but maritime climates extend this range to the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Most varieties produce one or two crops per year. Trees grown from seed begin flowering and produce fruit in 6 to 10 years or sooner and vegetatively propagated trees begin to flower and fruit in 3 to 6 years. Ragone et al. provide details on propagation and cultivation of Breadfruit, as well as diverse traditional uses in the Pacific. (Ragone 2006)
Some Breadfruit cultivars are fertile diploids (2n = 2x = 56), but many are sterile hybrids or triploids (2n = 3x = 84) and must be vegetatively propagated (Ragone 2001; Zerega et al. 2005 and references therein).
Petersen (2006) notes that eastern Micronesia’s subsistence economies are closely tied to breadfruit. In many areas, especially the Eastern Caroline high islands, Breadfruit is the main staple (only in the coral islands at the northern and southern margins, where rainfall is generally lower, is Breadfruit less economically significant). Petersen argues that the development of vigorous hybrid Breadfruit cultivars led to a "Breadfruit Revolution" 600 to 1200 years ago that was a major driver of sociocultural evolution across Micronesia.
Ragone (2001) studied chromosome numbers in Artocarpus altilis, A. mariannensis, and A. camnansi from 16 Pacific Island groups, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Artocarpus camansi and A. mariannensis exhibit counts of 2n = 56; various cultivars of A. altilis had counts of 2n = 56 (diploidy) and 2n = 84 (triploidy). Most diploid cultivars of A. altilis were seeded, but two cultivars with reduced seed number were observed. Micronesian samples included putative interspecific hybrids between A. altilis and A. mariannensis. The majority of these samples were seedless diploids, but triploid putative hybrids were also observed.
The wild, seeded ancestral form of Breadfruit, A. camansi, is native to New Guinea and possibly the Moluccas (in Indonesia) and the Philippines. Neither seeded nor seedless forms of Artocarpus altilis occur naturally in the Pacific Islands (contrary to sources which give the South Pacific as its native range). Breadfruit was first domesticated in the western Pacific and was spread throughout the region by humans beginning around 3000 years ago. Today, Breadfruit is cultivated on most Pacific islands (with the notable exceptions of New Zealand and Easter Island) and has a pantropical distribution. In the late 1700s, several seedless varieties were introduced to Jamaica and St. Vincent from Tahiti and a Tongan variety was introduced to Martinique and Cayenne via Mauritius. These Polynesian varieties were then spread through the Caribbean and to Central and South America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and northern Australia. Breadfruit is now also found in south Florida (U.S.A.). (Ragone 2006)
Zerega et al. (2005) used AFLP genetic markers to examine species boundaries in Breadfruit. They concluded that A. altilis (domesticated breadfruit), A. camansi, and A. mariannensis should be recognized as three distinct species (together forming a monophyletic lineage) and confirmed the existence of A. altilis X A. mariannensis hybrids. Zerega et al. provide detailed descriptions of these three taxa and a dichotomous key to separate them. Zarega et al. (2004) report their finding that most Melanesian and Polynesian Breadfruit cultivars appear to have been derived from A. camansi through generations of vegetative propagation and selection. In contrast, most Micronesian breadfruit cultivars appear to be the result of hybridization between A. camansi-derived Breadfruit and A. mariannensis. Because Breadfruit depends on humans for dispersal, Zarega et al. suggest, their data are consistent with the well-supported theory that humans settled Polynesia via Melanesia, as well as with a proposed long-distance human migration from eastern Melanesia into Micronesia.
Zarega et al. (2010) undertook a phylogenetic analysis of Artocarpus and related genera based on chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequence data.
Seedlessness in breadfruit has often been attributed to sterility due to triploidy, although other factors may play a role as well. In any case, the development of few-seeded and seedless fruits had significant benefits for Pacific Islanders who relied on Breadfruit as a staple crop. The development of fruits with reduced seed numbers yielded a greater proportion of edible fleshy tissue and resulted in a shift from using this species as a nut crop (breadnut) in western Melanesia to a starch crop (breadfruit) eastward. Since breadfruit is a seasonal crop typically available for just a few months of the year, methods had to be developed to deal with and use seasonal surpluses to provide food during the annual and often extended periods of scarcity. The method developed was that of fermentation and storage in pits. The importance of fermented breadfruit, especially in Samoa, Tonga, the Marquesas, Society Islands, and Micronesia, was a critical element in a preference for seedless cultivars which drove selection and perpetuation of seedless cultivars. (Ragone 2001)
Bennett and Nozzolillo (1987) found that the average number of seeds per seeded breadfruit harvested from a single 6-yr-old tree over a period of 7 months was 59. Individual fruits contained as many as 151 or as few as 12. For seeded breadfruits, the entire interior of the fruit is dominated by a mass of brown seeds. The fruits are not picked before maturity, as is the case for the seedless breadfruit, but rather are allowed to drop. The seeds are then removed from the rotting pulp and rind, boiled in salted water (or roasted), peeled (i.e., the seed coats are removed), and eaten. They are chestnut-like in size and flavor and hence are known as "chataigne" in French-speaking areas and "castaña" in Spanish-speaking areas.
The sapwood is very susceptible to attack by dry-wood termites. Historically, surfoards were made from the light wood in Hawaii. The sticky sap has sometimes been used to catch birds. Seedless fruits are typically gathered before maturity and roasted or boiled as a starchy vegetable. The young fruits can be sliced and fried. A dessert and preserves are sometimes made from the male flower clusters. (Little and Wadsworth 1964)
Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family (Moraceae)[2][3] believed to be a domesticated descendant of Artocarpus camansi originating in New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. It was initially spread to Oceania via the Austronesian expansion. It was further spread to other tropical regions of the world during the Colonial Era.[4][5] British and French navigators introduced a few Polynesian seedless varieties to Caribbean islands during the late 18th century. Today it is grown in some 90 countries throughout South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, Central America and Africa.[6] Its name is derived from the texture of the moderately ripe fruit when cooked, similar to freshly baked bread and having a potato-like flavor.[6][7]
The trees have been widely planted in tropical regions, including lowland Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean.[5][6] In addition to the fruit serving as a staple food in many cultures, the light, sturdy timber of breadfruit has been used for outriggers, ships, and houses in the tropics.
Breadfruit is closely related to Artocarpus camansi (breadnut or seeded breadfruit) of New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, Artocarpus blancoi (tipolo or antipolo) of the Philippines, and Artocarpus mariannensis (dugdug) of Micronesia, all of which are sometimes also referred to as "breadfruit". It is also closely related to the jackfruit.[8]
Breadfruit trees grow to a height of 26 metres (85 feet).[5] The large and thick leaves are deeply cut into pinnate lobes. All parts of the tree yield latex,[5] which is useful for boat caulking.[7]
The trees are monoecious, with male and female flowers growing on the same tree. The male flowers emerge first, followed shortly afterward by the female flowers. The latter grow into capitula, which are capable of pollination just three days later. Pollination occurs mainly by fruit bats, but cultivated varieties produce fruit without pollination.[7] The compound, false fruit develops from the swollen perianth, and originates from 1,500 to 2,000 flowers visible on the skin of the fruit as hexagon-like disks.
Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding food plants, with a single tree producing up to 200 or more grapefruit-sized fruits per season, requiring limited care. In the South Pacific, the trees yield 50 to 150 fruits per year, usually round, oval or oblong weighing 0.25–6 kilograms (0.55–13.23 lb).[6] Productivity varies between wet and dry areas. Studies in Barbados indicate a reasonable potential of 15–30 tonnes per hectare (6.7–13.4 short ton/acre).[5] The ovoid fruit has a rough surface, and each fruit is divided into many achenes, each achene surrounded by a fleshy perianth and growing on a fleshy receptacle. Most selectively bred cultivars have seedless fruit, whereas seeded varieties are grown mainly for their edible seeds.[7] Breadfruit is usually propagated using root cuttings.[6]
Breadfruit is closely related to the breadnut.[6] It is similar in appearance to its relative of the same genus, the jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus).
Breadfruit has hundreds of varieties and thousands of common names varying according to its geographic distribution, and is cultivated in some 90 countries.[5][6]
The closely related Artocarpus camansi can be distinguished from A. altilis by having spinier fruits with numerous seeds. Artocarpus mariannensis can be distinguished by having dark green elongated fruits with darker yellow flesh, as well as entire or shallowly lobed leaves.[8]
Breadfruit is propagated mainly by seeds, although seedless breadfruit can be propagated by transplanting suckers that grow off the surface roots of the tree.[5] The roots can be purposefully injured to induce the growth of suckers, which are then separated from the root and planted in a pot or directly transplanted into the ground.[5] Pruning also induces sucker growth.[5] Sucker cuttings are placed in plastic bags containing a mixture of soil, peat and sand, and kept in the shade while moistened with liquid fertilizer. When roots are developed, the transplant is put in full sun until time for planting in the orchard.[5]
For propagation in quantity, root cuttings are preferred, using segments about 10 centimetres (2 in) thick and 20 centimetres (9 in) long.[5] Rooting may take up to 5 months to develop, with the young trees ready for planting when they are 60 centimetres (2 ft) high.[5]
According to DNA fingerprinting studies, the wild seeded ancestor of breadfruit is the breadnut (Artocarpus camansi) which is native to New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. It was one of the canoe plants spread by Austronesian voyagers around 3,000 years ago into Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, where it was not native.[4][9][8][10]
A. camansi was domesticated and selectively bred in Polynesia, giving rise to the mostly seedless Artocarpus altilis. Micronesian breadfruit also show evidence of hybridization with the native Artocarpus mariannensis, while most Polynesian and Melanesian cultivars do not. This indicates that Micronesia was initially colonized separately from Polynesia and Melanesia through two different migration events which later came into contact with each other in eastern Micronesia.[4][9][8][10][6][7]
Breadfruit is an equatorial lowland species. It has been spread from its Pacific source to many tropical regions.[4][5]
In 1769, Joseph Banks was stationed in Tahiti as part of the Endeavour expedition commanded by Captain James Cook.[7][11] The late-18th-century quest for cheap, high-energy food sources for slaves in British colonies prompted colonial administrators and plantation owners to call for breadfruit to be brought to the Caribbean. As president of the Royal Society, Banks provided a cash bounty and gold medal for success in this endeavor, and successfully lobbied for a British Naval expedition. After an unsuccessful voyage to the South Pacific to collect the plants as commander of HMS Bounty, in 1791, William Bligh commanded a second expedition with Providence and Assistant, which collected seedless breadfruit plants in Tahiti and transported these to St. Helena in the Atlantic and St. Vincent and Jamaica in the West Indies.[6][7]
The plant grows best below elevations of 650 m (2,130 ft), but is found at elevations of 1,550 m (5,090 ft). Preferred soils are neutral to alkaline (pH of 6.1–7.4) and either sand, sandy loam, loam or sandy clay loam. Breadfruit is able to grow in coral sands and saline soils. The breadfruit is ultra-tropical, requiring a temperature range of 16–38 °C (61–100 °F) and an annual rainfall of 2,000–2,500 millimetres (80–100 inches).[5]
Breadfruit is 71% water, 27% carbohydrates, 1% protein and negligible in fat (see table). In a 100 g (3.5 oz) amount, raw breadfruit is a rich source (35% of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamin C and a moderate source (10% DV each) of thiamin and potassium, with no other nutrients in significant content.
Breadfruit is a staple food in many tropical regions. Most breadfruit varieties produce fruit throughout the year. Both ripe and unripe fruit have culinary uses; unripe breadfruit is cooked before consumption.[12] Before being eaten, the fruit are roasted, baked, fried or boiled. When cooked, the taste of moderately ripe breadfruit is described as potato-like, or similar to freshly baked bread.
One breadfruit tree can produce 200 kilograms (450 lb) each season.[13] Because breadfruit trees usually produce large crops at certain times of the year, preservation of harvested fruit is an issue. One traditional preservation technique is to bury peeled and washed fruits in a leaf-lined pit where they ferment over several weeks and produce a sour, sticky paste. So stored, the product may endure a year or more, and some pits are reported to have produced edible contents more than 20 years later.[14]
In addition to being edible raw, breadfruit can be ground into flour and the seeds can be cooked for consumption.[15]
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The seedless breadfruit is found in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is called sukun. It is commonly made into fritters and eaten as snacks. Breadfruit fritters are sold as local street food.
In the Philippines, breadfruit is known as rimas in Tagalog and kolo in the Visayan languages. It is also called kamansi (also spelled camansi), along with the closely related Artocarpus camansi, and the endemic Artocarpus blancoi (tipolo or antipolo). All three species, as well as the closely related jackfruit, are commonly used much in the same way in savory dishes. The immature fruits are most commonly eaten as ginataang rimas (cooked with coconut milk).[16][8][10]
In the Hawaiian staple food called poi, the traditional ingredient of mashed taro root can be replaced by, or augmented with, mashed breadfruit (ʻulu in Hawaiian). The resulting "breadfruit poi" is called poi ʻulu.
In Sri Lanka, it is cooked as a curry using coconut milk and spices (which becomes a side dish) or boiled. Boiled breadfruit is a famous main meal. It is often consumed with scraped coconut or coconut sambol, made of scraped coconut, red chili powder and salt mixed with a dash of lime juice. A traditional sweet snack made of finely sliced, sun-dried breadfruit chips deep-fried in coconut oil and dipped in heated treacle or sugar syrup is known as rata del petti.[17] In India, fritters of breadfruit, called jeev kadge phodi in Konkani or kadachakka varuthath in Malayalam are a local delicacy in coastal Karnataka and Kerala. In Seychelles, it was traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice, as an accompaniment to the mains. It would either be consumed boiled (friyapen bwi) or grilled (friyapen griye), where it would be put whole in the wood fire used for cooking the main meal and then taken out when ready. It is also eaten as a dessert, called ladob friyapen, where it is boiled in coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
In Belize, the Mayan people call it masapan.
In Puerto Rico, breadfruit is called panapén or pana, for short, although the name pana is often used to refer to breadnut, seeds of which have traditionally been boiled, peeled and eaten whole. In some inland regions it is also called mapén and used to make pasteles and alcapurrias. Breadfruit is often served boiled with a mixture of sauteed bacalao (salted cod fish), olive oil and onions. Mostly as tostones where about 1 inch chunks are fried, lighty flattened and fried again. Mofongo de panapén fried breadfruit mashed with olive oil, garlic, broth, and chicharrón. Rellenos de panapén the breadfruit version of papa rellena. Dipping sauce made from boiled ripe breadfruit similar to chutney using spices, sesame seeds, herbs, lentil, coconut milk, and fruit. Both ripe and unripe are boiled together and mashed with milk and butter to make pastelón de panapén, a dish similar to lasagna. Ripe breadfruit is used in desserts: flan de pana (breadfruit custard). Cazuela, a crustless pie with ripe breadfruit, spices, raisins, coconut milk, and sweet potatoes. Breadfruit flour is sold all over Puerto Rico and used for making bread, pastries, cookies, pancakes, waffles, crepes, and almojábana.
In the Dominican Republic, it is called buen pan or "good bread". Breadfruit isn't popular in Dominican cookery and is used mainly for feeding pigs.
In Barbados, breadfruit is boiled with salted meat and mashed with butter to make breadfruit coucou. It is usually eaten with saucy meat dishes.
In Haiti, steamed breadfruit is mashed to make a dish called tonmtonm which is eaten with a sauce made with okra and other ingredients, such as fish and crab.
In Trinidad and Tobago, breadfruit is boiled, then fried and eaten with saucy meat dishes like curried duck.
In Jamaica, breadfruit is boiled in soups or roasted on stove top, in the oven or on wood coal. It is eaten with the national dish ackee and salt fish. The ripe fruit is used in salads or fried as a side dish.
Breadfruit was widely used in a variety of ways among Pacific Islanders. Its lightweight wood (specific gravity of 0.27)[18] is resistant to termites and shipworms, so it is used as timber for structures and outrigger canoes.[6] Its wood pulp can also be used to make paper, called breadfruit tapa.[6] Native Hawaiians used its sticky latex to trap birds, whose feathers were made into cloaks.[5] The wood of the breadfruit tree was one of the most valuable timbers in the construction of traditional houses in Samoan architecture.
Breadfruit contains phytochemicals having potential as an insect repellent.[19][20] The parts of the fruits that are discarded can be used to feed livestock. The leaves of breadfruit trees can also be browsed by cattle.[21]
On Puluwat in the Caroline Islands, in the context of sacred yitang lore, breadfruit (poi) is a figure of speech for knowledge. This lore is organized into five categories: war, magic, meetings, navigation, and breadfruit.[22]
According to an etiological Hawaiian myth, the breadfruit originated from the sacrifice of the war god Kū. After deciding to live secretly among mortals as a farmer, Kū married and had children. He and his family lived happily until a famine seized their island. When he could no longer bear to watch his children suffer, Kū told his wife that he could deliver them from starvation, but to do so he would have to leave them. Reluctantly she agreed, and at her word, Kū descended into the ground right where he had stood until only the top of his head was visible. His family waited around the spot he had last been, day and night, watering it with their tears until suddenly, a small green shoot appeared where Kū had stood. Quickly, the shoot grew into a tall and leafy tree that was laden with heavy breadfruits that Kū's family and neighbors gratefully ate, joyfully saved from starvation.[23]
Though they are widely distributed throughout the Pacific, many breadfruit hybrids and cultivars are seedless or otherwise biologically incapable of naturally dispersing long distances. Therefore, it is clear that humans aided distribution of the plant in the Pacific, specifically prehistoric groups who colonized the Pacific Islands. To investigate the patterns of human migration throughout the Pacific, scientists have used molecular dating of breadfruit hybrids and cultivars in concert with anthropological data. Results support the west-to-east migration hypothesis, in which the Lapita people are thought to have traveled from Melanesia to numerous Polynesian islands.[9]
The world's largest collection of breadfruit varieties was established by botanist Diane Ragone, from over 20 years' travel to 50 Pacific islands, on a 4-hectare (10-acre) plot outside of Hana, on the isolated east coast of Maui (Hawaii).[24]
A breadfruit tree in Honolulu, Hawaii
Form of the buttress root
Male inflorescence
Female inflorescence
Artocarpus altilis in Hawaii
Breadfruit in Mangalore
Breadfruit in Kasaragod
Breadfruit whole, sliced lengthwise, and in cross-section
Breadfruit, named and described in Characteres generum plantarum (1776)
Drawing of breadfruit by John Frederick Miller
A polished basalt breadfruit pounder
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family (Moraceae) believed to be a domesticated descendant of Artocarpus camansi originating in New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. It was initially spread to Oceania via the Austronesian expansion. It was further spread to other tropical regions of the world during the Colonial Era. British and French navigators introduced a few Polynesian seedless varieties to Caribbean islands during the late 18th century. Today it is grown in some 90 countries throughout South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, Central America and Africa. Its name is derived from the texture of the moderately ripe fruit when cooked, similar to freshly baked bread and having a potato-like flavor.
The trees have been widely planted in tropical regions, including lowland Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean. In addition to the fruit serving as a staple food in many cultures, the light, sturdy timber of breadfruit has been used for outriggers, ships, and houses in the tropics.
Breadfruit is closely related to Artocarpus camansi (breadnut or seeded breadfruit) of New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, Artocarpus blancoi (tipolo or antipolo) of the Philippines, and Artocarpus mariannensis (dugdug) of Micronesia, all of which are sometimes also referred to as "breadfruit". It is also closely related to the jackfruit.
