About Peanut Butter Fruit(Malpighiaceae)

Native to tropical lowland regions of Central and South America from Costa Rica south to Peru and Brazil. The tree requires a tropical climate with or without a dry season. It is rarely cultivated outside its natural range except in botanical gardens or as a curiosity. Fully ripe fruits, which taste very much like peanut butter and also have a similar consistency, are eaten out of hand or made into sandwich spread. They are also used to prepare milk shakes, fruit juices, jellies, and preserves. Ripe fruits do not keep well and must be processed and kept in the refrigerator. Slightly underripe fruits are also edible; they have a crisp flesh and taste like carrots. 3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long with a curved, pointed apex. Fruits turn from green (over orange background) to dark red when fully ripe and have a soft orange pulp. Small evergreen shrub or tree with stiff, spreading branches, 2–4 m (6–13 ft) tall.

Opposite, simple, elliptic leaves 6–10 cm (2.4–4 in) long by 4–6 cm (1.6 –2.4 in) wide. Small yellow flowers with 5 petals are borne in the axils of leaves. Fruits oval, 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long with a curved, pointed apex. Fruits turn from green (over orange background) to dark red when fully ripe and have a soft orange pulp. Peanut Butter Fruit plants in Kerala is now available in our farm. .