Plant
Jackfruit
Artocarpus heterophyllus
Also known as: Artocarpus heterophyllus
A large evergreen tree in the fig family (Moraceae), native to the Western Ghats of India — the producer of the largest tree-borne fruit on Earth. Mature jackfruit weigh 10–25 kg; record specimens exceed 50 kg. Foundational to South Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, and Southeast Asian cuisines; recently popularized globally as a vegan meat-texture substitute (young unripe jackfruit pulls apart with a meat-like texture).
Scientific
Artocarpus heterophyllus is in the fig family Moraceae, closely related to fig and to breadfruit (A. altilis). The fruit is a multiple — like the pineapple, what looks like a single jackfruit is actually a fusion of many smaller fruits formed from a many-flowered inflorescence.
Mature individual fruits commonly weigh 10–25 kg; record specimens exceed 50 kg. Trees can produce 200–500 fruits per year, all borne directly on the trunk and large branches — a structural pattern called cauliflory (the same pattern seen in cacao).
Cultural and culinary
Jackfruit is one of the foundational tree crops of South Asia. In Bangladesh it is the national fruit. In Kerala, jackfruit cultivation and consumption have been continuous for thousands of years — every part of the plant is used (ripe flesh fresh or in desserts; unripe flesh as a vegetable; seeds boiled like chestnuts; wood as a fine timber).
The 21st-century global popularization of young unripe jackfruit as a vegan pulled-pork or pulled-chicken substitute (jackfruit BBQ, jackfruit carnitas) introduced the species to Western kitchens. The texture is genuinely meat-like when cooked appropriately; the marketing leap to “jackfruit replaces meat” has helped expand commercial Indian and Sri Lankan exports.
Global production
Top producers: India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: fig · cacao
- Member of: plants
- Cousin of: breadfruit
Sources
- Wikipedia — Jackfruit
A plant entry in the 0mn1.one directory.
What links here, and how
Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.
Scientific
cousin of
- Breadfruit auto-linked from body mention
Cultural
shares approach with
- Bodhi tree auto-linked from body mention
2 inbound links · 4 outbound