Artocarpus camansi
Artocarpus camansi, the breadnut, is a species of medium-sized tree in the family Moraceae. The wild ancestor of A. altilis, it is also known as seeded breadfruit to distinguish it from its mostly seedless descendant.
The breadnut is native to New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. Both the fruit and seeds are edible after cooking.
Description
The morphology of the breadnut is a tree up to tall with leaves long and wide and are pinnately lobed. The plant is monoecious and the male and female flowers occur at the tips of branches. Each male flower has two anthers, and is club-shaped. Thousands of individual male flowers are grouped together in an inflorescence measuring in diameter and long.The fruit is globular, weighing and are long by wide with a yellow-green color and each mature tree can produce 600–800 fruits per year. Additionally, when ripe, the interior of the fruit is off white with a sweet taste and aroma. The fruit of the breadnut is mostly seed and the number of seeds per fruit can range from 12 to 150 per fruit at a mass of around per seed. The seed of the fruit are normally spread by flying fox and other mammals.
Similar species
Artocarpus camansi can be distinguished from the closely related A. altilis by having spinier fruits with numerous seeds. Meanwhile, A. mariannensis can be distinguished by having dark green elongated fruits with darker yellow flesh, as well as entire or shallowly lobed leaves.Taxonomy
The species was first described in 1837 by the Spanish friar and botanist Francisco Manuel Blanco from specimens in the Philippines. The specific name is derived from the plant's Tagalog name kamansi.Other common names for plant include chataigne, castaña 'tropical', kapiak in New Guinea, katahar in Guyana, kluwih in Indonesia, sukun biji in Malaysia, kos-del, gamasi in Makassarese, in Sri Lanka, pan de fruta in Dominican Republic, labapin in Haïti, and pana de pepita in Puerto Rico.
Distribution and habitat
Artocarpus camansi is likely endemic to New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. The ambiguity of the origins of this plant is a result of spread and domestication of multiple species of breadfruit, A. camansi included, as Austronesian sailors spread from island to island in the Pacific. Artocarpus altilis, the breadfruit, is believed to be a domesticated descendant of A. camansi, selectively bred by Polynesians to be predominantly seedless.Breadnut trees can usually be found in tropical environments along low-lying areas at an elevation of, inundated riverbanks, and in freshwater swamps. The plant grows best at an annual temperature range of in deep, well drained soil with a neutral to alkaline soil acidity.