What is a Kaimito?

This is a fruit we call “Kaimito” in tagalog, when it is raw the color of its fruit is green and when it turns dark violet or purple you could tell that its fruit is already ripe. When you break its fruit into pieces, the fruit has a sticky liquid (colored white and it’s kind of fresh rubber) but its juice is sweet and delicious and its flesh is white.

I used to eat this kind of fruit when I was a kid because it is available in our backyard. But right now, this fruit is hard to find even in the market because of increased logging of its tree. My father would tell me that its tree especially its branches are weak or frail so it is not advisable for me to climb its trunk and harvest the fruits but rather we use a long stick with a bent metal piece (claw) at the end to get its fruits.

Old stories would tell that whenever you find a Kaimito Tree, there would be always some kind of dark spirit residing in the tree (such as aswang, tikbalang, kapre, etc) but they were just myths. Some Children nowadays could not tell their stories about Kaimito in the future because of its declining existence.

According to history this fruit was introduced to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period. (Photo credit to respective owner).

What do you call this fruit in your province?