Category: Biodiversity

Plant a breadfruit tree, a peanut butter fruit tree, and some blackberry jam fruit, and you’re all set if you live in Hawaii, at least when all three are actually alive at once. The Basics Peanut butter fruit, Bunchosia argentea, is a shrub or small tree in the family Malpighiaceae. Origin and Habitat Native to…

The fruits are edible too and honestly the real reason we wanted it. The Basics Peach palm, Bactris gasipaes, is a clumping palm in the family Arecaceae. Origin and Habitat Native to Central and South America, long cultivated by indigenous peoples throughout the region. What It Looks Like A clumping palm, grown commercially mostly for…

Papaya’s one of the more forgiving things we grow. The Basics Papaya, Carica papaya, is a fast-growing, tree-like plant in the family Caricaceae. Ours includes the Kamiya variety. Origin and Habitat Native to Central America and southern Mexico, now grown throughout the tropics worldwide. What It Looks Like A fast-growing, palm-like plant with a hollow…

How did I not hear about this fruit sooner. The Basics Panama berry, also called Jamaican cherry or strawberry tree, Muntingia calabura, is a fast-growing tree in the family Muntingiaceae. Origin and Habitat Native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. What It Looks Like A fast-growing, smallish, umbrella-shaped tree producing little…

Got this one from Ken Love’s HTFG plant sale, same trip where I picked up salak, orange durian, and araza. The Basics Ooray is one of the rarer species in our collection. Origin and Habitat Not much documented yet from our own experience with this species. What It Looks Like The tree finally started producing…

I tend to Google research these things a little too late. The Basics Olive, Olea europaea, is a tree in the family Oleaceae. This one was an Arbequina, a small Spanish variety. Origin and Habitat Native to the Mediterranean region, where it thrives on cool winters and long dry summers. What It Looks Like A…

A wildfire in 1885 nearly wiped it out, down to under a thousand palms left growing wild, and it’s still listed as endangered. The Basics Nihoa palm, Pritchardia remota, is a palm species in the family Arecaceae. Origin and Habitat Endemic to Nihoa, a tiny, remote island near Niʻihau in the Hawaiian archipelago. What It…

Useful more for what grows around and on it than for anything it produces itself, and yet it might be one of the most important trees on this whole farm. The Basics Neneleau, also called Hawaiian sumac (Rhus sandwicensis), is an endemic Hawaiian tree and one of our go-to nurse trees in the food forest.…

We tried neem here once before, planted three about five years back and only one made it, so this new one’s got some pressure on it. The Basics Neem, Azadirachta indica, is a fast-growing tree in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. Origin and Habitat Native to the Indian subcontinent, now grown throughout the tropics for its…

Supposedly one tastes like creamy pineapple and the other like artificial strawberry, which is a wild range for two trees that go by the same name. The Basics Ndea, sometimes called African peach, refers to two related species here, Nauclea xanthoxylon and Nauclea latifolia, in the family Rubiaceae. Origin and Habitat Both come from swampy…