An ackee leaf on a morning after rain…
…given the scientific name Blighia sapida by a botanist at Kew Gardens in London in 1806, after the infamous William Bligh of Bounty fame. He wasn’t responsible for bringing the ackee to Jamaica, but for taking it from Jamaica to Kew in 1793. (B. W. Higman, in “Jamaican Food”)
The ackee was most likely brought to Jamaica from West Africa by enslaved Africans.
“As a native of Africa, the ackee was familiar to core contingents of enslaved people, and in Jamaica the tree and its fruit have never had any name other than their African derivation, the Kru a-kee. Distinctively associating it with their homelands, the enslaved may have played an active role in the plants dissemination within Jamaica. Whereas former slave village sites contain only the occasional breadfruit tree, some of these abandoned settlements are indicated by large groves of ackee trees.” (Higman, p.154)
In our garden, we have both the softer butter ackee and the firmer cheese ackee trees. I much prefer the latter, as the fruit keep their shape during cooking and aren’t as likely to crumble and become mushy.
The largest ackee tree we have in the garden is this cheese ackee tree, which sprung up in the spot where a massive male guinep tree had been. That guinep tree was the first to fall during Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and the ackee sprung up of its own accord, probably from a seed dropped by a passing bird. Bless you, passing bird!
It is an impressive specimen, though it did get a bit tilted in one of the storms that brushed past us in the years since Gilbert. We never get to eat the fruit from the very top of the tree, however. No stick long enough and no-one spry enough to get there.
“A” is for ackee. That’s good enough for me…
Right Steps & Poui Trees 