This is another great plant that I got to see a lot of in Jamaica. They had these planted in opportune spots very near our room so I got to enjoy the crazy ole leaves every day. I think I commented on more than one occasion that the midribs (and petioles too really) were as thick as pencils. Check it out.
It's hard to get a good perspective but I assure you, the leaves are quite large and I've seen some pretty crazy fruit photos...they get big, twice as big as yo head.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to eat the fruit. Was told that the ripe fruit is baked and according to Wiki and the locals, it tastes a little bit like bread.
Polynesians liked the plant so much they abandoned their endeavors with rice and focused on this instead. I think they probably made the right call on that one. Imagine the first people that decided they'd try to eat that...humans are crazy.
So I'm just going to mention really quickly that it is in the Moraceae family or mulberry family. The fruit gets far too complicated to explain in a sentence or two but if you want a pretty neat fruit structure, feel free to look it up. It is a monoecious plant and has separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The males come out first, get the pollen going, and then the females emerge with a LOT of flowers...a lot...I tell you ...its just a lot.
ON TO THE FUN STORY TIME
One of my favorite things about plants is all the crazy stories and histories that surround so many of them. In this case, during the late 18th century there was a large demand for cheap food to feed slaves on plantations in the Caribbean. Some lame dude in Captain James Cooks party put up a bounty to anyone that could bring the breadfruit to the area. Ole William Bligh and his HMS Bounty decided to shore up the task. They painstakingly got over 1000 pots planted and set sail and ...mutiny. Somehow the dude made it back from being set out on a long boat. Well he of course wanted the skrilla so he set out again (with two ships this time) and brought the plants from Tahiti to St. Helena, St. Vincent, and Jamaica.
Joke was on them, the slaves refused to eat it. BOOSH!
Moral of that story? Plants are cool, people are dumb.
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