Breadfruit

The breadfruit tree is an evergreen tree in the mulberry family. It produces fruit called breadfruit.

Originally, the tree grew in Southeast Asia. It has now been cultivated and is grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

The tree can reach a height of up to 20 metres (66 ft). The fruits contain a lot of starch, much like potatoes; they are ground to make flour, which can then be used for baking.

History

Ancestors of the Polynesians found the trees growing in the northwest New Guinea area around 3,500 years ago. They gave up the rice cultivation they had brought with them from Taiwan, and raised breadfruit instead.

They took the trees with them wherever they went in the Pacific. The exceptions were Easter Island and New Zealand: both places were too cold to grow the trees. Meanwhile, ancient eastern Indonesians spread the plant west and north through insular and coastal Southeast Asia.

In the past, the breadfruit tree was also widely planted in other tropical regions.

The Mutiny on the Bounty

The Mutiny on the Bounty was caused by breadfruit trees. In 1787, William Bligh was ordered to chop down a number of breadfruit trees in Tahiti and to ship them to the Caribbean. There they would serve as a cheap food for the slaves working on plantations. The main plantations at the time grew sugarcane.

This was the first attempt a government made to grow an economically important plant in a place that it is not native to. The attempt failed, because the seamen did not understand why the drinking water supply was used to water the plants; they threw the plants overboard.

Bligh was able to ship the trees in a second voyage. Arriving in the Caribbean, he faced a different problem: The slaves there did not accept breadfruit as a replacement for cereals.

Bligh won the Royal Society medal for his efforts, even though the introduction was not entirely successful. Although most slaves refused to eat the new food, breadfruit was accepted into the cuisine of Puerto Rico.