Mangosteen

Don't look at the pretty terrestrial orchid flowers lest you would miss seeing the object of this blog: the very hard to grow mangosteen tree that is the small tree to the right.

The purple mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), aka as mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia. It also grows in tropical South American countries such as Colombia. The fruit of this tree is said to be one of the best fruits in the world. I don't know about that. I thought so before, but now I would question myself about such assertion. My taste must have changed! But it is moot because I know it's impossible to grow this tree here in Miami. I tried! But here it is growing very well in FTBG. As you can see, it's inside a climate controlled green house. It is 8 in the morning and it's wet here because the irrigation system is turned on to pamper all the rare and difficult to grow trees you can find here.

You can't easily see them, but the fruits are on this tree right now. Some are still green, but some are almost ripe as their rinds turn purple.

I am quite anxious to come up with a plan to somehow sample one or two of these mangosteens... Hhhmmm... Let's see... May be I can bribe someone?