The Trees that Make Bread

(Originally pulished in 2015 here) We've been in Maui almost a week and have saved the longest distance excursion for the last day. It's been a week of awakening to the nudge of a goat head-ramming our camper a ritual which occurs at 6:45AM precisely, just after the distant cacophony of feral roosters. We are told Hana is much farther than it appears on any map and to be prepared for an unusually tedious drive. We're headed to the far side of Maui not just for the cut ridge scenery but to learn about a particular group of food trees.

The sign near Wailuku says "Hana 51 miles" and by the time you get 12 miles closer in Haiku one imagines the rest will drop by as quickly. However the land begins to fold, the road forced along with it - weaving in and out of ridges, continuous S-curves, over single-lane bridges, the jungle encroaching on both sides. There is also more traffic than one might expect. We don't break 20 miles per hour for the rest of the duration.

The road to Hana is dug into the sides of Maui's northern ridges. It's a windy morning, some trees have toppled across.

Three hours from leaving Maui's hub one arrives on the outskirts of Hana, making swift and relieved left to Kahanu Gardens. It's an ancient historic site, a ruin of a massive temple of volcanic stone encircled by green fields and coconuts -- however today we're also here to meet the food trees that helped to sustain the people who built that temple, a historic staple starch of the South Pacific. We've encountered breadfruits everywhere tropical; South FL, Ecuador, Mexico (where the tree is called "arbol de pan"). Nearly everywhere we've encountered this tree it has been the cultivated Artocarpus altiltis.

There is a large depression in the road just before the garden's entrance, a flow zone for rains off the highland, the road itself is busted and worn from washout. It rises out of this dip to a clean-cut property. Kahanu Garden is the home to the world's largest Breadfruit collection.

A large jackfruit greets visitors at the entrance, followed immediately by a long grove of breadfruits. We're out of the car the moment we park. The ground beneath the breadfruit trees is littered with leaves, dropped fruit, older piles of fermented mush with sprouting seedlings. After a brief check-in at the front desk we wander off the dirt road into a daunting grove of tall trees, touching their leaves and turning tags. At first nobody seems to mind that we're off the usual marked visitor paths.

The trees all look very similar, their relation apparent, but subtle differences soon begin to register. This tree has a smaller leaf. This leaf is entire. This fruit is oblong, a different skin texture. That one has a different girth and branch structure. All appear to be variations on a central theme, yet the closer one looks the more different some trees appear.


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What is a "Breadfruit?"

What may be considered "Breadfruit" by common name consists of 3 closely related species.

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• Artocarpus altiltis: The manmade seedless starch-fruit cultivated type for which the name "breadfruit" is given. Leaf is lobed, top of leaf relatively shiny, slightly felty or smooth; bottom of leaf felty.

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• Artocarpus camansi (aka. "breadnut"): The seeded wild ancestor of breadfruit, native to New Guinea and Moluccas. It has also been propagated across the world's tropical regions and occurs pantropically as a feral tree. Generally, leaf is bigger, but with slightly fatter lobes than A. altiltis, and top of the leaf is felty.

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• Artocarpus mariannensis ("breadnut" or "dugdug"): Grows wild in Palau and the Mariana Islands where it has hybridized naturally with the cultivated A. altiltis. These rare hybrids are found only in Micronesia. Leaves are the least lobed of any breadfruit, sometimes entire, their texture smooth, shiny, with a shape like "fish fins."

Breadfruits produce male and female flowers on the same tree (monoecious) and only the seeded varieties produce a viable pollen.

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We haven't gotten too far down the center row before a golf cart quietly rustles up, it's driver with a curious but concerned look. Based on some past experiences where enthusiasm has led us off-trail, I suspect he's here to usher us out of the area. So I attempt an intercept.

"I'm amazed by all these Artocarpus, curious to learn about them. The ecotypes, hybrids..."

He pauses, relaxing, "What specifically are you interested in?"

"Everything... I know so little about their diversity. Which ones do you find interesting?"

His eyes widen, having asked a question that engages the subject-obsessed. "Well, I can show you, I take care of the trees." "I'm Kama."

We're quickly perched along the single golf cart seat, a situation familiar to most plant enthusiasts, zipping quietly down rows of dramatic breadfruit leaves. For all the roots and bumps the cart has remarkably good suspension.

I go on about my interest in tropical fruits and how I've been picking and eating breadfruits during my visit in a few different ways, mostly treating them much like yams* or potatoes.

"How did you cook them?" Kama inquires

"I cut them up and boil them-"

"Naw man, you should steam it. Cut the fruit in quarters, it takes half the time."

Indeed it has taken over 40 minutes parboling. Steaming the fruit will also preserve more of the nutrition.

Artocarpus mariannensis, an ornamental type (left) and a food type (right).

We encounter an A. mariannensis (the tag reads "Dugdug") which is a species that has relatively unlobed shiny, smooth leaves. I recognize it as similar to the "ornamental breadfruit" we had seen driving through Haiku. I show Kama the pictures and he concurs. The fruit seller couldn't tell me at the time what it was.

The cart lurches at the end of the first row where 3 relatively short trees defy their stature with gigantic leaves. The rightmost tree has a leaf at least 3 feet long. "Wow" is a word I over-use.

Artocarpus camansi

The tag reads "Kapiak / Papua New Guinea." This A. camansi type has what may be the largest leaf of the breadfruits. It also has conical scales extruding from the fruit skin, a heavy fruit which has numerous seeds inside. Beneath the tree is a pile of them where a fruit had obviously fallen and quickly decomposed. These are fruits grown for the copious seeds which are cooked and have a flavor similar to chestnuts, something also done with jackfruit seeds, and other Artocarpus species.

To the left of Kapiak is a tree with a finely cut elegant leaf that strikes me as more as an ornamental than as a food cultivar. Indeed, it is both, a type which makes a smaller fruit. The tree with this attractive leaf is "Ebechab" an Artocarpus altiltis X A. mariannensis hybrid from Palau, which Kama remarks best served roasted over an open fire.

Heading back into the main grove we stop under a particularly tall tree with stocky branches that reach out, then immediately up. "This is Lipet, a massive fruit." Kama spots two high up on the tree, twice the size of ones I had been seeing. "...and those are still small." He adds, gesturing something watermelon-sized. "..and it's very good too. Slightly sweet. Very good fruit."

"Lipet," an Artocarpus altiltis / A. mariannensis hybrid makes a very large, good quality fruit.
This type originates from Pohnpei (Micronesia).

Each of these fruits has different virtues, and Kama stops periodically introducing us to individual trees considered superior in fruit production, flavor, bearing habits. A variety called "Afara" from Tahiti with orange-colored skin, a Micronesian hybrid called "Meinpadahk" which cooks up to a light creamy flesh. A local variety from Hawaii, "Ulu," and the Fijian "Ulu fiti."

The topic turns to conservation and to the collection's importance for The Breadfruit Institute, a NTBG program which micropropagates the best production cultivars from bud tissue (via Global Breadfruit), and distributes them where needed. Breadfruit holds great promise as a productive source of starch and protein in tropical parts of the world, and this collection is a cornerstone of that important effort.

"We sent 1,000 trees to Haiti last year" Kama says.

Read more about this amazing project here: Breadfruit Initiative

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Having eaten a few breadfruits which had ripened fully, I ask if there are particular types better for eating soft as a ripe fruit, as opposed to cooking while hard like a starch. He thinks for a second. "The Samoan types. They are sweet. Those trees are in the garden." Kama drives us to an different grove, at the back of a large community garden. "These trees are 5 maybe 6 years old. Nobody gets to see these."

One of the Samoan trees bears a particularly round fruit, similar to one I had seen in Mexico. These trees are robust, and trimmed below 20' to spread wide instead of upwards. Apparently breadfruits respond well to trimming of upward shoots, and this keeping them smaller makes the fruits reachable as well as increasing the tree's vigor.

"There are lots of nutrients in the soils here too, so they grow fast."

Artocarpus altiltis cultivars from Samoa.

The trees, though relatively large, seem young and have many thinner, wandering branches. The soil is a little compact but a rich copper-tan, those ideal red volcanic soils people talk about. I have heard over the years that Artocarpus are generally happiest in mineral-rich alluvial soils. Kama agrees. "There were some planted on Kauai at the same time, they are half this size."

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We're now headed back towards the main grove but this time we detour to the far end of an open field, passing a mix of A. mariannensis hybrids on the way. We reach the far end stopping under some unlabeled Okari Nut trees. I often collected Indian Almond (Terminalia catappa) during my years living in coastal Florida, but Okari is my favorite of the Terminalia species, it's kernels as large as a thumb. Kama says he hasn't eaten them, I'm unable to contain my enthusiasm insisting that he ought to. There are thousands littered everywhere and old ones sprouting.

Admiring the stately "Okari" (Terminalia kaernbachii) the kernel of which has a crisp brazil-nut/coconut flavor. The species is from Papua New Guinea

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There is some interesting pollination occurring among the Artocarpus species as well. Several trees which bear seedless fruits in their native land have produced seeds when introduced to the collection. There is some cross-pollination going on, and it's interesting to think about the possibilities of developing new, novel breadfruit cultivars from such a large base collection.

Kama still hasn't shown us his favorite breadfruit type either, we have been slightly distracted. It's planted nearby in a small stand of older trees, some of the first to have been planted at Kahanu Gardens. He introduces the brother cultivar first, before turning to the larger of the two trees.

"This one is my favorite, the best. I don't tell anybody because people come and take them."

A cascade of leaves and fruit on a Polynesian A. altiltis cultivar.

As we're brought back out to the main part of the grove Kama motions towards a tree tucked back from the dirt road. "That one is called 'White,' the inside never turns any color. When the fruit hits the ground it is bright white. Snow white."

The remark is perhaps an omen, as 24 hours later we depart Hawaii for Boston, landing into a region where the ground has just blanketed with 4 feet of that very color.

Roger Kama, breadfruit caretaker and connoisseur.