Picking Jamburol

When I was a child, I remember my grandmother nurturing a small plant in the backyard, which she had grown from seed. I remember that the plant was slow to grow, and didn't bear any flowers or fruit for years. Yet, we were told that it was a special plant that we were not allowed to pick leaves from or pull branches off from. It was a jamburol plant - also called water apple or wax apple.

I was in my teens before the plant bore any fruit. And when it did, there was only one single pale green, bell shaped fruit, which we cut up into equal portions to share among the household. We waited another year before the plant produced more fruit.

Years later, my mother started another jamburol plant from seed. It grows now at the entrance to their house, providing much needed shade. The tree has been bearing fruit for a few years now, but it is still young, and does not produce a heavy yield.

The flowers are white, with a multitude of pale yellow stamens.

Unlike the ones that my grandmother grew, the fruit in this tree are deep pink and fairly small.

But they are juicy and sweet, with a high water content, making it refreshing to taste.

Some fruits contain a large soft seed in the cotton-candy like centre. I always felt that those are the lucky ones, and that finding the seed means that my wishes for that day would come true :)

It is probably time now for me to start a jamburol plant from seed, and watch it grow, waiting for fruit. I think I'll go for deep red.