Local fruits at Gunung Jagoi 09.12.18

A number of local tropical fruits are in season right now. At Jagoi, I saw many fruit trees that were laden with fruits. Fruits like mangosteen, langsat (lanzone), rambai, tampoi, durian and cempedak. The fruit season is actually coming down from its peak now with many durian trees having dropped their fruits and the road sides loaded with durian sellers. Rambutans are also in surplus as are langsat. Less common fruits such as rambai and tampoi usually appear late in the season, signalling the end of the fruit season.

See also:
1. Gunung Jagoi main post
2. Flora of Gunung Jagoi 
3. Local fruits at Gunung Jagoi (this one)
4. Abandoned Summit Village at Gunung Jagoi


Buah rambai or just rambai, is another Baccaurea species, same genus as tampoi and tampoi belimbing. Not too popular compared to langsat as it can be on the sour side.


Inside each fruit are sections of fleshy white pulp surrounding a small seed, much like langsat but more juicy. They slightly on the sour side but when very ripe, can taste quite sweet too.


A tree laden with “strings” of rambai fruits.


Buah cempedak is of the same family as jack fruit. These ripe fruits still on the tree have been visited by some forest mammals. Probably squirrels. The fruiting season is a great time for the wild animals to stock up their reserves for leaner times during the dry season. Then, they will have to depend on shoots, figs and other non-seasonal wild fruits.


A fruit opened up by some other trekkers and left on the ground. The seeds of cempedak are also edible. They are cooked by boiling and then eaten plain, tasting a bit like potato.


A fallen mangosteen.


Mangosteen tree full of fruits, still green and unripe. They will start to turn dark and black when ready for picking.


Not sure what species of fruit this is but it resembles a mango.


A langsat tree full of fruits which are almost ready to be harvested.

 
This is locally known as belimbing asam or sour star fruit. Used together with or in place of tamarind to provide a sour taste in dishes such as fish-head curry or asam fish (sour fish dish).


Tampoi (Baccaurea macrocarpa) tree with fruits borne on the branches.


A fallen tampoi fruit going bad.


A small mound of discarded tampoi (Baccaurea macrocarpa) skin. Some locals probably climbed up the trees and collected the fruits and ate opened them on the spot. Must have been a big group cause that’s quite a lot of discarded fruit skin! Tampoi is also used for making tampoi tuak so that's probably what happened here (the edible pulp collected to be fermented).

For many more photos, please head to my flickr photoset (click here).