The Bignay Tree
Scientific Name: Antidesma bunius
Family: Euphorbiaceae
A minor fruit tree making a big splash in my garden is the Bignay.
It
is only 4 years old and has been fruiting for the last two years. Last
year, however was insignificant compared to this year. It is just
covered in racemes of round, bright red berries. They will continue
ripening unevenly, showing gorgeous colours of white and varying shades
of pink and red to black. The skin is thin but tough and yields a
bright red juice. When unripe the fruits are acid, when ripe subacid to
slightly sweet. Some people can taste a slightly bitter aftertaste
while others cannot. The berry itself is ½ cm in diameter with quite a
large flattish brown seed. The berries hang together in racemes 10 cm
long with from 10 to 70 berries on each.
To harvest simply pick
the racemes and then pull at the berries which come off easily. Your
fingers become stained but it easily washes off in water. Put clean
berries in a saucepan, add water to cover and boil. Mash the fruit to
extract all the juice, strain and discard flesh and seeds. Use the
juice to make jams, jellies and drinks etc, with the right amount of
sugar.
It is a useful fruit for jams, jellies and drinks and
best result are got by using half ripe fruits - the ones deep red, not
black. To make jam, pectin must be added. It also makes an excellent
syrup and has been successfully made into wine and brandy.
I had
always thought it was native to the Philippines but some research has
shown that it is native and common in the wild in Northern Australia,
India and Ceylon.
The tree is shrubby up to 8m high. The foliage
is dense, shiny and evergreen. The female and male flowers are borne on
separate trees. The highly fragrant flowers are reddish, while the
females are greenish. Some female trees will bear some fruit without
male flowers being present, as many of the flowers are perfect.
My trees flowered in November and the fruit ripened in January/February. So it is about 2 months from flowering to ripening.
In
Malaya, the fruits are eaten by children. Indonesians cook the fruits
with fish. In the Philippines and Indonesia the leaves are eaten raw or
stewed with rice or used as pot herbs with vegetables.
The tree is very useful as well. The bark makes a tough fibre which can make rope. The timber is useful, being reddish and hard.
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