Junglesop

What it is

The tough, leathery skin encloses a generous mass of soft pulp and many flattened seeds. The fruit is broad as well as long, measuring about 20–30 cm (8–12 in) across.

Whether a fruit is sweet or sour depends on the maturity of its seeds and on the tree it came from. The sweet ones have a flavour that rivals a peach. The flesh is so rich that some people can only eat a little at a time.

Where it comes from

Junglesop grows in tropical Africa, from Ghana south to Gabon and east to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. People gather its fruit from wild trees. The people of the Central African rainforest enjoy it greatly and call it bobo.

How it's eaten where it grows

Around Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, people eat the fruit after it has fallen from the tree. They eat the abundant, slightly sour pulp straight away, and it is much appreciated there. Sometimes pepper and salt go into the pulp, and it is eaten with cassava or plantains.

How it's grown

The tree belongs to the humid lowland tropics. It grows in the lower and middle layers of dense rainforest, reaching 10–30 m (33–98 ft) tall, and also in fringing forest and adjoining savannah on clayey soil with humus.

Planting a tree can mean a long wait for fruit: some grown by the missionary Roy Danforth still had not borne after twenty years.

When and where you'll find it

Around Kisangani, junglesop usually fruits from July to September. People gather the fallen fruit from forest trees, eat the pulp fresh and sell the fruit in local markets. It is a wild fruit of the Central African forest, gathered rather than grown in orchards.