National Symbols of Jamaica - Ackee, Flag of Jamaica, Guaiacum Officinale, Red-Billed Streamertail, Coat of Arms of Jamaica, Jamaica (Paperback)

Chapters: Ackee, Flag of Jamaica, Guaiacum Officinale, Red-Billed Streamertail, Coat of Arms of Jamaica, Jamaica, Land We Love, Doctor Bird. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Ackee, Vegetable Brain, Achee, Akee Apple or Akee (Blighia sapida) is a member of the Sapindaceae (soapberry family), native to tropical West Africa in Cameroon, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. It is related to the lychee and the longan, and is an evergreen tree that grows about 10 metres tall, with a short trunk and a dense crown. The leaves are pinnate, leathery, compound, 1530 centimetres long, with 610 elliptical obovate-oblong leaflets. Each leaflet is 812 centimetres long and 58 centimetres broad. Ackee FlowerThe flowers are unisexual and fragrant. They have five petals, are greenish-white and bloom during warm months. The fruit is pear-shaped. When it ripens, it turns from green to a bright red to yellow-orange, and splits open to reveal three large, shiny black seeds, surrounded by soft, creamy or spongy, white to yellow flesharilli. The fruit typically weighs 100200 grams. The scientific name honours Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and introduced it to science. The common name is derived from the West African Akye fufo. The term ackee originated from the Twi language. The fruit was imported to Jamaica from West Africa (probably on a slave ship) before 1778. Since then it has become a major feature of various Caribbean cuisines, and is also cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas elsewhere around the world. Ackee and saltfish, a traditional Jamaican dishAlthough native to Wes...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=36634