Jackfruit (പ്ലാവ്)

Scientific Name: Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.

Synonyms: Artocarpus brasiliensis Gomez, Artocarpus integrifolia var. glabra Stokes 

Unique ID: 22

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Sub Class: Monochlamydeae                   

Series: Unisexulaes

Family: Moraceae

Common Names

English – Jackfruit

Malayalam –പ്ലാവ്‌

Tamil – pila, palaa

Hindi – kathal

 


 

Description: Evergreen trees to 25 m high, bark 10-12 mm thick, blackish-grey, mottled with green and black, exfoliating in large thick flakes, exfoliated surface orange-red; blaze pinkish-yellow; exudation milky white latex; trunk with warty tubercles; branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules 3-5 cm long, lateral, ovate-lanceolate, sheathing, glabrous, cauducous; petiole 20-40 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lamina 8-23 x 3-13 cm, obovate, obovate-oblong, or elliptic-ovate, base acute, round or cuneate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous and shining above and scabrous beneath; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, pinnate, prominent, arched, intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers unisexual, minute, yellowish-green, in spikes enclosed by spathe-like bracts, male from young branches, catkin narrow-cylindric; female catkins from the trunk and mature branches, more massive, Fruit a sorosis 30-45 x 20-25 cm, oblong, tuberculate, tubercles conical yellowish-green, fruiting perianth yellow to light orange, fleshy; seeds 10-12 x 8-10 mm, elliptic-oblong, smooth, glossy.

 

Habitat: Subcanopy trees in evergreen to semievergreen forests up to 1000 m; often cultivated.

Distribution: Widely cultivated in the tropics, origin is probably South India

Uses: Medicinal : Leaf,Seed ; Food: Fruit,Seed ; Fodder: goat,cattle,sheep; Good fuelwood; Pest management: Leaf ; Wind break, Culturally significant, Green manure, Timber, Implements