Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Artocarpus heterophyllus - Jackfruit

Edible Portion: Fruit, Seeds, Leaves, Flowers, Vegetable

An evergreen tree up to 20 m tall and in the breadfruit family. Trees form many branches but have one or two main trunks. The bark is smooth and dark green. Leaves of young trees have 1 or 2 lobes but mature leaves are long (15 cm) and entire. They are leathery, deep green and glossy. Flowers occur on spikes, on stalks from the trunk or main branches. Some stalks only have male flowers, others only have female flowers while some have both male and female spikes. Generally male flowers are on short stalks among the leaves, and female flowers are on trunks. Male flowers are 5 cm long by 2 cm wide and are dull green. Female flowers are bright green. The very large spiny fruit grow on main branches and the trunk. The fruit is a composite fruit made up from the many individual flowers of the flower cluster. Fruit can be 1 m long and weigh 36 kg. They have 6 sided fleshy spines. Each seed is surrounded by a yellow fleshy sheath. Seed are 2-4 cm long and 1-2 cm wide. There can be 100-500 seed in a fruit. Unlike breadfruit, there are no seedless Jackfruit. When ripe the unopened fruit has a strong smell.