Help me figure out the name of this panamanian fruit!?

Syrus asks: Help me figure out the name of this panamanian fruit!?

My family is from panama and there is this fruit we call momones. Now I know there has got to be an english word for these things, they are green (sometimes speckled with black/dark green), about the size of a key lime, the skin is almost like a shell that easily slides off after it is broken with your teeth, the pit is only a little smaller than the entire fruit, and once you have sucked all the juice out of the pulp is almost gummy in texture. They have a bitter-sweet taste. I really am trying to tell my friends about these but without a reference word... and momones just won't work. Bonus points to those who can provide sources.
1 year ago


Princess replies: Mamoncillo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mamoncillo

Mamoncillo leaf and fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Sapindaceae
Genus: Melicoccus
Species: M. bijugatus
Binomial name
Melicoccus bijugatus
Jacq.
The mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus) is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalised over a wide area of the American tropics including Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Suriname and the Caribbean. It is also known as mamón (although the word is considered obscene in some Spanish speaking countries), ackee (in St. Lucia, Barbados: in the rest of the Caribbean actually the name of a quite different fruit), chenet (in Trinidad and Tobago), guaya, gnep, ginep, skinnip (in Jamaica,St. Kitts) genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Belize, Bahamas) quenepa (in Puerto Rico), genepa, xenepa and Spanish lime, limoncillo (in the Dominican Republic).
It is a large tree growing up to 30 m high. The leaves are alternate, 8–5 cm long, pinnate with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 5–10 cm long. It is grown and cultivated for its ovoid, green fruit, which grow in bunches. The fruit ripen during the summer. The fruit, somewhat like a cross between a lychee and a lime, is classified as a drupe. A mamoncillo fruit has a tight and thin but rigid layer of skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, which is sucked by putting the whole fruit inside the mouth (the seed takes most of the volume of what is inside the skin). Despite the light color of the fruit's flesh, the juice stains a dark brown color, and was often used by indigenous Arawak natives to dye cloth.
Each mamoncillo fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself. Mamoncillo seeds can be roasted and eaten just like sunflower seeds or chestnuts.
The mamoncillo has small, greenish-white, fragrant flowers in panicles. They begin to blossom from the branch tips when the rainy season begins. The mamoncillo is an example of a polygamous plant, producing bisexual flowers as well as flowers that are exclusively male or exclusively female. Occasionally, a bisexual flower will have a "dud" (sterile) anther, which limits the number of fruits produced from self-pollination when cross-pollination is possible.
Being tropical, the mamoncillo prefers warmer temperatures. Its leaves can be damaged if the temperature hits freezing point, with serious damage occurring below -4°C. Gardeners of mamoncillos should occasionally give their plants heavy watering during the summer and propagate via seeds; grafting is also used to propagate cultivars.
The mamoncillo is also commonly planted along roadsides as an ornamental tree.
This fruit can be sweet or sour. In the southern areas of Mexico it's generally eaten with chili powder, salt, and lemon. The sweet varieties are generally eaten without condiments of any kind.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamoncillo
1 year ago


Syrus replies: Perfect... exactly what I was looking for. A++ And even more so that you got the wiki.. Thanx