African Breadfruit or Breadnut (Treculia africana)

Family: Moraceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Treculia africana, otherwise known as African Breadfruit, is a tropical, evergreen tree growing up to 30 m in height. It has a dense, spreading crown and a fluted trunk covered with dark gray and smooth bark. When cut, the thick bark produces white latex that turns rusty red. The leaves are huge, dark green, simple, and alternate. The flowers are yellow brown, occurring in the axis of leaves or on older wood down to the trunk.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Nuts/Seeds

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer

Flavor & Culinary Uses

flavour similar to peanuts. — A flavour similar to peanuts.; Eaten as dessert nuts after roasting or boiling, they are also ground into a meal, used in soups and to produce a variety of baked foods such as bread and paste.; The seeds are extracted after macerating the fruit in water.; The grains have an excellent polyvalent dietetic value - the biological value of its proteins exceeds even that of soybeans.

Habitat & North American Range

Usually found near streams or in swampy areas in forests at an altitude up to 1,500 metres. Riverine, mixed evergreen and swamp forests, woodlands, sea level to 1,300 metres. (Zone 10)