Lasora

Get to know it

Lasora has sweet, nearly transparent flesh that clings like glue. Picked green, it becomes a vegetable or pickle; left to ripen, it is eaten as fruit. The same sticky pulp can even hold sheets of paper together.

What it is

Also called Assyrian plum or Indian cherry, lasora is Cordia myxa, a member of the borage family. The round or egg-shaped fruit has flesh around a deeply wrinkled stone containing one or two seeds. Maru Samridhi averages 10.5 g (0.4 oz) per fruit and turns yellowish cream when fully ripe.

The closely related Cordia dichotoma is often confused with it in Asia and Australia. Both belong to the same group of trees, but they are separate species.

Where it comes from

Lasora comes from the belt between the eastern Mediterranean and eastern India. People carried it to tropical Africa, other parts of tropical Asia and Australia long ago, and later to the Americas.

It grows widely in the dry regions of northern India. Maru Samridhi is a selection from seed-grown trees evaluated between 2006 and 2015.

How it's eaten where it grows

In western Rajasthan, green lasora goes into vegetable dishes, achar and chutney. Achar is pickle: lasora can fill the jar alone or join other fruit and vegetables. Dried lasora is another local preparation.

For a home-cooked version with raw mango, the fruit is briefly boiled and its seeds removed, then cooked with chopped mango, coriander, red pepper and turmeric. It is served with dal and rice or roti.

How it's grown

Lasora is a drought-tolerant tree with a dense, spreading crown and white to cream flowers. It grows from seed or stem cuttings; cuttings keep the qualities of a chosen tree.

Maru Samridhi trees grown from seed begin fruiting in their fifth year, while trees made by joining a bud to a seedling begin in their third. Fruit for cooking is picked green in several rounds as it matures.

When and where you'll find it

In Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Maru Samridhi usually flowers in February and March, with fruit maturing in April and May. Western Rajasthan’s local markets also carry preserved forms, including pickle, chutney and dried fruit.

Outside India, lasora can turn up as bottled pickle: National makes one labelled “Lasoora Pickle”, listed by an Indian and Pakistani grocery in Tracy, California.

Sources · 6

Get it near Detroit

What it tastes like

As soft as a banana, as sweet as a peach≈

Not sweetlemonSweet

MildbananaapplelemonSour

SoftpearappleCrisp

More about the taste

Ripe lasora has almost transparent, sticky pulp with a sweet taste.

Choose, eat

1ChooseRipe for eating fresh
Look for
Ripe for eating fresh
Green for pickles
On the label
Cordia myxa
Choose ripe fruit for eating fresh, or green fruit for pickles.
2EatFruit
Eat
Fruit
Fully ripe lasora is sweet; half-ripe fruit has notably stickier pulp. It's eaten fresh or cooked as a vegetable.

Detroit, Michigan

When it’s good here

Grown here

Ships from other states

4 varieties

20 names in 8 languages

Tâm mộc nhớtVietnamese

Cook it

Recipes 2

Strange but true

If you like Lasora

Tastes alike

Close relatives

Sources

Lasora · Fruitopia · checked Sep 22, 2026