Rose Apple Flowers

This is a picture of my neighbors Rose Apple tree in bloom. The tree is about 25 by 25 feet and to the best of my knowledge was planted in the 1960 or 70’s. It has beautiful evergreen foliage reminiscent of Ficus Alii, long thin leaves. The flowers are followed by golf ball sized fruit that no one is very excited about eating. My husband is a famous pie baker and there are some recipes around so maybe we will try a pie later this year. Apparently there is a great deal of differentiation in the quality of fruit from seeds of these trees, meaning some fruit is better than another.

Native to the West Indies, I see these here and there in South Florida, but they are more common in South America and naturalized in parts of India. It is a common dooryard fruit in parts of Peru.

Beautiful when swaying in the wind; in my opinion, this tree could be planted for aesthetic value alone.

Update: We ate some fruit, I can only say it must be an acquired taste or something you have to grow up eating. Kind of perfumy tasting, the fruit is a fibrous shell around a pit. Larry refused to bake a pie after tasting the fruit.