Fruit Tree - WHAT IS THIS ONE???

[MyKey]

Well I have moved into a new home and in the backyard I have a a couple quite large trees which will have 100's of these fruit items on it and will be ripe in a few weeks where the fruit goes from green to a bright yellow almost bannana color.

So now WHAT IS IT? I do not have a clue!!!

[Jay Henley]

I think it is a Magnolia.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

No Magnolia seeds are bright red

[DigitalScape]

It appears to be a loquat (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/loquat.html) tree. The fruit is tasty (with large pits - three I believe).

[stargal01]

have you tasted it yet? i dare you.

[MyKey]

Originally Posted by stargal01

have you tasted it yet? i dare you.

yep its sour right now, almost like a lemon, but its not quite ripe so I bet in a couple days it will be sweet.

[Roy]

I think John is right with the loquat tree.

Opps I just read some details in that link.....
How ya doing there Mike?

Toxicity

A 5-year-old girl in Florida ate 4 unripe loquats, fell asleep and was difficult to awaken and seemed dazed. After about 2 hours, she was back to normal. There have been instances of poisoning in poultry from ingestion of loquat seeds. The seeds contain amygdalin (which is converted into HCN); also the lipids, sterol, b-sitosterol, triglyceride, sterolester, diglyceride and compound lipids; and fatty acids, mainly linoleic, palmitic, linolenic and oleic. There is amygdalin also in the fruit peel. The leaves possess a mixture of triterpenes, also tannin, vitamin B and ascorbic acid; in addition, there are traces of arsenic. Young leaves contain saponin. Some individuals suffer headache when too close to a loquat tree in bloom, The emanation from the flowers is sweet and penetrating.

Other Uses

Wood: The wood is pink, hard, close-grained, medium-heavy. It has been used instead of pear wood in making rulers and other drawing instruments.

Animal feed: The young branches have been lopped for fodder.

Perfume: In the 1950's, the flowers attracted the interest of the perfume industry in France and Spain and some experimental work was done in extraction of the essential oil from the flowers or leaves. The product was appealing but the yield was very small.

Medicinal Uses: The fruit is said to act as a sedative and is eaten to halt vomiting and thirst.

The flowers are regarded as having expectorant properties. An infusion of the leaves, or the dried, powdered leaves, may be taken to relieve diarrhea and depression and to counteract intoxication from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Leaf poultices are applied on swellings.

[pippin]

<joke>

tsk tsk mike...

your images are below your usual standard


</joke>

[JohnRushing]

It's a loquat, we have two in our backyard but not near that tall, only about 9 to 10 ft tall. I've tried some of the fruit off ours when it was ripe but didn't care for it. They taste kind of like a fig to me but not as soft of texture. About the only thing ours is good for is to draw bee's, lot's of bee's! Especially when the fruit falls off the tree. I've also heard them called japaness figs but a friend who is a boitinest (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) was who told me they were loquats.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

My dad had one in Dallas until a hard hard freeze took it out, I believe they are hardy up to about Austin and anypoints north of that are iffy for you to get a tree to mature enough to bear fruit before a harsh winter takes them out. Rather nice looking tree with little problems on keeping them healthy other than the lack of cold tollerence. Seeds germenate without too much problems.

Fruit is kinda like a cross between an apricot and a fig, guess you could can it or make preserves from it.
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/loquat.html
hey you can make wine from it!
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/loquat.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat

[LoungeLizard]

Man, that's some bad photography. I was expecting some really POPPING colors, a bit of glow, some vignetting.

[ttusa]

These look like comquats to me..fruit becomes yellowish, orange and can be quite tasty. You'll have lots of bees around, also...

[engstrom]

Originally Posted by LoungeLizard

Man, that's some bad photography. I was expecting some really POPPING colors, a bit of glow, some vignetting.

Now we know that Cody's the real photo genius of TriCoast!

Just kidding Mike.

[Silvernic]

I can't believe you ate it BEFORE knowing what it was. You're so brave.

[Daniel Bates]

Brave? Perhaps !