Friday, January 27, 2012

Marlierea - not fit for eating

I bought the seeds on Tradewindsfruit.com, germinated and grew the plant in a container, then planted it in the garden 3 years ago, well it's fruiting profusely now.
The shrub/tree is really pretty, with the typically peeling bark of the Myrtacious family, fragrant leaves etc. I was really looking forward to trying the fruit, well, it's a total disappointment.

The fruit looks much like a purple strawberry guava. Like the strawberry guava, 90% of the fruit is infested with fruit fly larvae. The plant itself also strongly resembles the strawberry guava, strikingly beautiful, tough, drought tolerant.

Take a very ripe fruit, if you can find one without worms, bite it halfway, check for any squirming, then place it in your mouth, chew. The first impression is this could be quite good, a nice tart guava like taste, but it quickly gives way to the most bitter after taste, if you have taken quinine before, thats how bitter it is.

Since my gardening space is limited, like the strawberry guava, the Marlierea has to go.
I plan on planting a seed grown Atemoya in its place after all possibility of frost is gone.

I hope this helps anyone else interested in growing Marlierea, for landscaping, fantastic, for edibility, not very good. Other not so good edible plants that will soon be gone from my yard, Suriname cherry.

Marlierea

Fruit 

Rotting fruit

Peeling Bark

Fruit with seeds

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