Saturday, April 28, 2007

tropical grapes?

Today I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I meant to take a closer look at edible plants, but was distracted by all the pretty flowers. I'll have to go back. One tree caught my eye big time. It was in the Climatron, where all the tropical plants dwell. Here's the photos I got of this odd looking fruit tree:






As you can see from the tag in the photo, this is a Myrciaria Cauliflora, otherwise known as Jabuticaba tree. The fruits apparently (you can't taste MOBOT plants, of course) taste similar to grapes, and are indeed used to make jams and wines. I'm tempted to order some wine made from Jabuticaba from Volcano Winery in Hawaii. Or maybe I should take a vacation....Here's a review of the wine. And here's a Food & Wine article about discovering tropical fruits.

No comments: