- Who
- jackfruit tree Artocarpus heterophyllus
- What
- 0.9 metre(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable ()
- When
The largest tree-borne fruit are those of the jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus), native to the Indo-Malayan region of Asia. Its fruit, the jackfruit (Bangladesh's national fruit), can grow up to 0.9 metres (2 feet 11 inches) long and 0.5 metres (1 ft 7 inches) wide, and weigh as much as 34 kilograms (74 pounds 15 ounces). They are edible and pulpy in texture, are borne directly from the tree's trunk and lower branches – a behaviour known in botany as cauliflory. A single mature tree can produce as many as 100–200 fruit per year.
Technically, the jackfruit is what is known as a multiple fruit, consisting of many hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of individual flowers, whose fleshy petals constitute the edible portion of the fruit.
Famously, it is a rich source of vitamin B6.
The heaviest jackfruit on record weighed 42.72 kg (94 lb 2.9 oz) on 23 June 2016.
