some not so common fruit trees at the hort park




















































i missed the fruit and vegetable section during my last two visits to the horticulture park at hyderabad road.

came across some not so common fruits in this section. most of the fruit trees are pot grown and quite a number of them were already bearing fruit. there is this biriba from brazil which i mistook for a custard apple. it belongs to the same family as the soursop. like custard apples, the over-ripe fruit will become unattractively black.

one of the fruit trees laden with lots of fruit is the water apple. although the pale green water apples were not big, there were so many on the tree that it seemed the whole tree was bogged down by them.

another not so common fruit plant found in the garden is the raspberry which thrives in cooler temperate climate.

a fruit which has antioxidants

as you get older and you become more health conscious, the food that you eat does matter. so, lately, i have eating more watermelons and mangosteens. i have always liked eating mangoes, especially the sweet varieties like harum manis and the thai honey mangoes, so the mango has all along been a feature in my diet.

lately, my friend has introduced me to eating passion fruit. at first, i was a bit apprehensive as i had never tasted it before. he assured me that the taste was pleasant enough; a bit sweet and a bit tart. i used a metal spoon to scoop all the seeds and juice to pop them into my mouth. the juice has the taste of a guava. why passion fruit? because it has antioxidant properties.





it seems all kinds of berries are rich in antioxidants. these include cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. apples, red grapes, prunes and peaches are also included in the list of antioxidant-rich fruit. among local fruit, mangoes, melons, mangosteens and passion fruit have been touted as having antioxidants.

antioxidants are also found in vegetables like kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli flowers and onions among others.


antioxidants are important disease-fighting compounds. scientists believe they help prevent and repair the stress that comes from oxidation, a natural process that occurs during normal cell function. a small percentage of cells becomes damaged during oxidation and turns into free radicals, which can start a chain reaction to harming more cells and possibly disease. unchecked free radical activity has been linked to cancer, heart disease, alzheimer's disease and parkinson's disease.