Surinam Cherry

Photo: Anonymous

About

An fruit that is as much a delight to the palate as it is pleasing to the eye. Slightly more acidic than a conventional cherry when ripe. Texture is more like a star fruit. Very striking in beauty.

Information

Translations: Surinama Cherry, Σουρινάμ Cherry, Surinamo Cherry, سورينام الكرز, Суринам Черрі, Суринам Трешња, スリナムチェリー, 수리남 체리, Suriname Cherry, סורינם שרי, Suriname Cherry, Suriname Cherry, सूरीनाम चेरी, Pitanga, Pitangueira, 苏里南樱桃, Суринам Черри, Pitanga, Суринам Чери

Physical Description

Long-stalked flowers, borne singly or as many as 4 together in the leaf axils, have 4 delicate, recurved, white petals and a tuft of 50 to 60 prominent white stamens with pale-yellow anthers. The 7- to 8-ribbed fruit, oblate, 3/4 to 1 1/2 in (2-4 cm) wide, turns from green to orange as it develops and, when mature, bright-red to deep-scarlet or dark, purplish maroon ("black") when fully ripe. The skin is thin, the flesh orange-red, melting and very juicy; acid to sweet, with a touch of resin and slight bitterness. There may be 1 fairly large, round seed or 2 or 3 smaller seeds each with a flattened side, more or less attached to the flesh by a few slender fibers.

Selecting and Buying

Choosing: There are 2 distinct types: the common bright-red and the rarer dark-crimson to nearly black, which tends to be sweeter and less resinous

Procuring: The fruits develop and ripen quickly, only 3 weeks after the flowers open. In Brazil, the plants bloom in September and fruits ripen in October; they bloom again in December and January. In Florida and the Bahamas, there is a spring crop, March or April through May or June; and a second crop, September through November, coinciding with the spring and fall rains.
The fruits should be picked only when they are so ripe as to fall into the hand at the lightest touch, otherwise they will be undesirably resinous. Gathering must be done daily or even twice a day.

Preparation and Use

Children enjoy the ripe fruits out-of-hand. For table use, they are best slit vertically on one side, spread open to release the seed(s), and kept chilled for 2 or 3 hours to dispel most of their resinously aromatic character. If seeded and sprinkled with sugar before placing in the refrigerator, they will become mild and sweet and will exude much juice and serve very well instead of strawberries on shortcake and topped with whipped cream. They are an excellent addition to fruit cups, salads and custard pudding; also ice cream; and can be made into pie or sauce or preserved whole in sirup. They are often made into jam, jelly, relish or pickles. Brazilians ferment the juice into vinegar or wine, and sometimes prepare a distilled liquor.

Social/Political

The plant is native from Surinam, Guyana and French Guiana to southern Brazil (especially the states of Rio de Janeiro, Paraña, Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul), and to northern, eastern and central Uruguay. It grows wild in thickets on the banks of the Pilcomayo River in Paraguay. It was first described botanically from a plant growing in a garden at Pisa, Italy, which is believed to have been introduced from Goa, India. Portuguese voyagers are said to have carried the seed from Brazil to India, as they did the cashew. It is cultivated and naturalized in Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia; also along the Atlantic coast of Central America; and in some islands of the West Indies–the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and in the Bahamas and Bermuda.

History: In 1918, Britton wrote, in the Flora of Bermuda, that ". . as it harbors the fruit fly, the tree has been largely cut out in recent years." It is frequently grown in Hawaii, Samoa, India and Ceylon as an ornamental plant and occasionally in tropical Africa, southern China and in the Philippines where it first fruited in 1911. It was long ago planted on the Mediterranean coast of Africa and the European Riviera. The first Surinam cherry was introduced into coastal Israel in 1922 and aroused considerable interest because it produced fruit in May when other fruits are scarce, and it requires so little care; but over 10 years of observation, the yields recorded were disappointingly small.

Author

Anonymous

Comments

Permalink Thomas Clifton
April 26, 2013

I have these cherries growing all over my yard in South Florida. They are so abundant I can hardly use them all. I wish I knew how to make wine or something like that from them.
I make pies and donuts and cakes from them but one can only eat so many sweets!
When I had Labrador Retriever dogs that were aging, they used to love to eat these things, hence I believe these are good for arthritis as well because creatures know more about nature than humans do at times.