Breadfruit
Artocarpus altilis
The breadfruit tree, in addition to providing a staple food in many Pacific islands, is an important source of medicine, shelter, timber, fibre and a whole range of other environmental goods and services.
Distribution
The breadfruit is a common backyard crop in Asia, from India to remote East Pacific islands and Hawaii, as well as in the Caribbean and the American mainland tropics. The close relatives of breadfruit, the jackfruit and the champedak, have a more western distribution and are common in Sri Lanka, South East Asia and Indonesia.
Origins
The origins of breadfruit as a cultivated crop go back at least 3000 years to when hunters and gatherers on the Micronesian and Melanesian archipelagos first started to harvest the fruits in the wild, and then dispersed the seeds around their settlements. From its origins in the South Pacific, the tree spread with humans as they explored the pacific islands of Polynesia.
It was breadfruit that, at least indirectly, was behind the famous mutiny on the Bounty. Captain Bligh was engaged in taking breadfruit seedlings to the Caribbean, where its introduction was intended to provide cheap food for slaves. But his crew quickly grew rebellious when he reduced their rations of fresh drinking water in order to keep the breadfruit alive. The sailors mutinied, set Bligh adrift in a small rowing boat and eventually settled on Pitcairn Island. Amazingly, Bligh survived and with a new ship and crew completed his mission of establishing breadfruit in the Caribbean.
As different cultures subsequently adapted it to new habitats and to their preferences, diversity flowered, and it is now found in a large number of cultivated varieties.
Use and diversity
Breadfruit is mostly eaten as a vegetable, and the time of its harvesting dictates whether it should be roasted, baked, boiled, fried, or dried and ground into flour. Breadfruit flour is richer than wheat flour in lysine and other essential amino acids. In Jamaica, the flour is boiled, sweetened, and eaten as porridge. In the Caribbean, seedless varieties dominate, while in New Guinea only varieties with seeds are eaten.
In Malaysia some traditional clothes are made from the fibrous inner bark. The wood is used for boat and house construction, and sap and milk is used both for glue and mosquito repellent. The leaves make excellent livestock feed. The tree is an essential canopy species in agroforestry systems in the Pacific and provides both shelter and erosion control in addition to all its products.
Threats and conservation
Breadfruit trees in homegardens are 'food safety nets' and play an important role in subsistence economies. The crop receives little commercial and research attention, but it is generally acknowledged that it has a big potential outside its current distribution. The fruits vary in taste and appearance between varieties, and the size ranges from 300g to 6kg per fruit. The Breadfruit Institute of the National Botanical Garden in Hawaii recorded more than 300 varieties of breadfruit on 45 Pacific islands. They now hold 120 varieties in their field collection.
Common threats to the crop include white fly, scale, mealy bugs, leaf spot, and fungal fruit rots. A mysterious pest, called "Pingalap disease", killed thousands of trees from 1957 to 1960 in the Polynesian islands and showed the importance of having a diverse genepool to fall back on.
Collections
To learn more about breadfruit collections, please consult the Breadfruit Conservation Strategy.
The breadfruit tree, in addition to providing a staple food in many Pacific islands, is an important source of medicine, shelter, timber, fibre and a whole range of other environmental goods and services.
Distribution
The breadfruit is a common backyard crop in Asia, from India to remote East Pacific islands and Hawaii, as well as in the Caribbean and the American mainland tropics. The close relatives of breadfruit, the jackfruit and the champedak, have a more western distribution and are common in Sri Lanka, South East Asia and Indonesia.
Origins
The origins of breadfruit as a cultivated crop go back at least 3000 years to when hunters and gatherers on the Micronesian and Melanesian archipelagos first started to harvest the fruits in the wild, and then dispersed the seeds around their settlements. From its origins in the South Pacific, the tree spread with humans as they explored the pacific islands of Polynesia.
It was breadfruit that, at least indirectly, was behind the famous mutiny on the Bounty. Captain Bligh was engaged in taking breadfruit seedlings to the Caribbean, where its introduction was intended to provide cheap food for slaves. But his crew quickly grew rebellious when he reduced their rations of fresh drinking water in order to keep the breadfruit alive. The sailors mutinied, set Bligh adrift in a small rowing boat and eventually settled on Pitcairn Island. Amazingly, Bligh survived and with a new ship and crew completed his mission of establishing breadfruit in the Caribbean.
As different cultures subsequently adapted it to new habitats and to their preferences, diversity flowered, and it is now found in a large number of cultivated varieties.
Use and diversity
Breadfruit is mostly eaten as a vegetable, and the time of its harvesting dictates whether it should be roasted, baked, boiled, fried, or dried and ground into flour. Breadfruit flour is richer than wheat flour in lysine and other essential amino acids. In Jamaica, the flour is boiled, sweetened, and eaten as porridge. In the Caribbean, seedless varieties dominate, while in New Guinea only varieties with seeds are eaten.
In Malaysia some traditional clothes are made from the fibrous inner bark. The wood is used for boat and house construction, and sap and milk is used both for glue and mosquito repellent. The leaves make excellent livestock feed. The tree is an essential canopy species in agroforestry systems in the Pacific and provides both shelter and erosion control in addition to all its products.
Threats and conservation
Breadfruit trees in homegardens are 'food safety nets' and play an important role in subsistence economies. The crop receives little commercial and research attention, but it is generally acknowledged that it has a big potential outside its current distribution. The fruits vary in taste and appearance between varieties, and the size ranges from 300g to 6kg per fruit. The Breadfruit Institute of the National Botanical Garden in Hawaii recorded more than 300 varieties of breadfruit on 45 Pacific islands. They now hold 120 varieties in their field collection.
Common threats to the crop include white fly, scale, mealy bugs, leaf spot, and fungal fruit rots. A mysterious pest, called "Pingalap disease", killed thousands of trees from 1957 to 1960 in the Polynesian islands and showed the importance of having a diverse genepool to fall back on.
Collections
To learn more about breadfruit collections, please consult the Breadfruit Conservation Strategy.