Touring the Rarest Garden in Florida- OLD RARE TROPICALS

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:03]What's up everybody? Today me and my wife and some friends, we came down to Homestead, Florida near Miami to check out Fruit and Spice Park. We've been here a couple times before. We want to show you guys around and share the knowledge we have on these tropical fruits and try to get you guys excited about growing some tropical fruits and hopefully you learn some stuff and see some fruits you've never seen before.

[00:00:39]Not too many popular things this season, but there raspberry.

[00:00:48]Those are all out there. Oh, uh, >> raspberry.

[00:00:51]>> Yeah, my sort of raspberry. Um, real quick, are you check your card to see if you can get charge for that? Because >> So, we just went through and paid. It was 15 bucks per person. And a lot of the times when you come here, they have fruit up front that's ripe and they'll actually let you sample some of what's ripe. And so, that's some kind of banana. I'm going to guess it's nam.

[00:01:14]>> It is tart, but it is pretty flavorful.

[00:01:18]>> Mhm.

[00:01:18]>> Mhm.

[00:01:19]>> It's like an apple.

[00:01:20]>> It is. It's like an apple. So, first off, already we see a giant black sapote tree. It's at least 60 70t tall. And you can see even a black sapote right there.

[00:01:36]I don't know if you guys can see it, but there's a black sapote. So, right here on the other side, right when you walk out of the door, there's a nice Barbados cherry.

[00:01:47]Acerola >> has a couple flowers. And this is one of the highest fruits or berries in vitamin C that there is. They do tours here. So you can take a guided tour and they take you around the park a little bit and they talk about certain plants.

[00:02:07]>> The main rule is no picking. You can pick the fruit that's up off the ground and you can eat it, but they don't want you picking it off of the trees. They said if you find any fruit too, uh you can bring it up there to them and they will cut it. So right over here they have a little demonstration on some container container culture and uh these are all fruit trees. You can see here miracle fruit. These these will actually change your taste buds and make sour things sweet. Oh, she's going to make everything she tastes today.

[00:02:40]>> For the for the next hour, if any fruit she eats is sour, it's going to be sweet. This is a y lang lang tree and it's in the anonacas family I believe.

[00:02:51]And this is in this is one of the ingredients that they use as a fragrance in a lot of perfumes. There's a cool looking lizard. Not originally from Florida, but they're here now and they're thriving. So, leave them alone.

[00:03:04]Here is a nice sapodilla tree in a big pot. I got a feeling that thing is in the ground. It's probably rooted in the ground. This is another good one for container culture. A lot of people aren't the biggest fans of this fruit, but it's very prolific and you can use it in lots of different dishes. This is June plum.

[00:03:26]And you can see it's everbearing.

[00:03:30]There's fruits in all stages. Fruits ripe, fruits small. There's flowers that are totally unopen. And there's flowers open today. This tree is going to have fruit on it basically 24/7. Every day of the year, there's going to be some stuff to eat.

[00:03:45]>> Wow, that banana is so good. Now, >> this is a very underrated Eugenia. It's a rainforest rainforest plum eugenia candolana.

[00:03:59]That bark is just beautiful peeling bark like a eucalyptus tree. Lily, I can tell by that pink new growth. Very hot pink.

[00:04:09]Yeah, >> there's a not the happiest looking jaboti cabba canistelle tucked in here.

[00:04:19]>> It's got a couple.

[00:04:21]>> We got some ripe ones today to eat.

[00:04:24]>> We picked some ripe ones at Three Sisters Farms. So over here, these are some kind of pineapples. I don't know if they really are that edible, but they are pineapples.

[00:04:37]Um, and above them are these pea eggplants.

[00:04:43]A lot of people call them turkey berries.

[00:04:47]They don't get very big. You can see how big the berries are. These are fulls size.

[00:04:52]And I have heard a lot of people say that they are powerhouse and nutrition.

[00:04:57]There's lots of little seeds in them. I I enjoy cooking with them and stirfries or curries.

[00:05:01]>> I like them. Yeah.

[00:05:04]It's a >> good one to grow. These are just so beautiful.

[00:05:07]Yeah, these are so beautiful, but not your friend whenever you're trying to work around them. So, it would be absolutely impossible to cover every single plant here. Wouldn't be impossible, but it would just take way too long and I would be jumping all over the place. There's a nice sernon bush.

[00:05:26]Beautiful jiotic cabba. Wow.

[00:05:29]>> Look how many fruits are in there.

[00:05:31]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:05:34]>> This is a saber. Oh my goodness.

[00:05:39]That is so beautiful.

[00:05:43]>> Wow.

[00:05:43]>> And guys, it it's just everywhere all the way up the trunk.

[00:05:49]>> Wow.

[00:05:50]And look, this part has a aphid infestation right here.

[00:05:55]>> Jacob, >> he bought the membership. This is a super underrated fruit tree. Mame Americana. Not mami sapote. This is different. Mommy americanana.

[00:06:11]And you can see some of the fruits up there. Kind of looks like a sapadilla.

[00:06:15]Kind of looks like a mame sapote, but it's not. It's totally different. Very underrated. Go check the taste test video if you want to see this one. We got sapadilla trees everywhere.

[00:06:29]Here's a mame sapote tree, guys. Mame sapotes take two years to ripen on the tree.

[00:06:38]And the best way to describe the way that fruit tastes is like a sweet potato pie or a pumpkin pie. That's literally how it tastes.

[00:06:45]>> This botanical garden is probably one of the best in Florida for rare tropical fruits. And almost all of these trees are super mature. Like very tall, very large, maybe even 50 plus years old.

[00:07:03]>> Yeah, guys. All the trees behind her are all fruit trees. Star apples, canistels, sapadillas.

[00:07:11]>> It is something that is just you don't see in Florida a whole lot. So, if you're on vacation or you don't know where to go and you're in South Florida, definitely check out this botanical garden.

[00:07:24]>> Yeah, it's worth it. It was 15 bucks to get in. Or you can get a year pass for maybe like 30 bucks.

[00:07:29]>> Yeah.

[00:07:29]>> 40 bucks.

[00:07:30]>> Totally worth it. You You'll get to try fruits you've never had in your whole life. You'll get to try fruits that are going to be your new favorite fruits and you can pick up seeds, so it's totally worth it. So, this one right behind her is a is a pretty uncommon, underrated fruit in my opinion. I'm just showing off the aeroids in there, the air plants. But this is a cinnamon apple.

[00:07:52]Cinnamon apples are are really good.

[00:07:54]This is a very slow growing tree. This tree is about 15t tall, 20 foot tall at the at the max. It's fairly wide, but I guarantee you this tree is at least like 25, 30 years old. So, they're very slow growing.

[00:08:10]Like you can see, they're not very big and they're they're very old. So, we're coming across the field here and we're coming up on a mulberry section. And right now is spring, so mulberries are setting. So, there's some pomegranates here, too.

[00:08:27]Pomegranates do all right in Florida, but they don't like a whole bunch of humidity because they're actually a desert plant. So, they're very well adapted to drought and high heat. And the pomegranates at my house, they took 24°, no problem, and they're still flowering and fruing.

[00:08:47]There's lots of different mulberry varieties here.

[00:08:53]There's a couple mulberries right there that aren't ripe. Those look like tyes.

[00:08:58]>> Found a Pakistan mulberry on the ground.

[00:09:01]So sweet. Oh my gosh.

[00:09:06]There's a couple on the ground.

[00:09:08]>> Oh, look.

[00:09:10]Yeah, I see some ripe ones right there.

[00:09:11]>> Oh, look. This one fell on the ground.

[00:09:14]Look how juicy.

[00:09:16]>> Wow.

[00:09:16]>> I'm touching it and it's just like juicy. It probably has worms. I'm not going to eat it, but beautiful.

[00:09:23]>> Yeah. A lot of mulberries, you're not going to be able to buy these at the grocery store because they don't hold up commercially. You can't pick them. You can't harvest them and get them to the store to sell them cuz they will just bust and fall all apart.

[00:09:37]>> Here's a nice elderberry.

[00:09:40]>> The flowers smell lovely.

[00:09:41]>> Yeah, the flowers do smell very good right now.

[00:09:45]>> Oo, potent, super floral.

[00:09:49]>> Here's a little dwarf mulberry.

[00:09:53]You can see how small these little mulberries are.

[00:09:56]This is the dwarf everbearing.

[00:10:02]This one's got a great flavor.

[00:10:05]>> So, we're leaving the mulberry zone, heading over towards this kimito tree.

[00:10:12]And here's a nice olive.

[00:10:17]Olives grow well in Florida, but I have not seen them produce much.

[00:10:24]Here is another here's another Himalayan mulberry. And similar to the Pakistan, very long, but they're actually white when they're ripe. And you can see that one right there is ripe. And these are so sweet that me personally, I can only eat a couple of them. They're so sweet. A lot of people love this mulberry variety.

[00:10:47]And it is just absolutely loaded.

[00:10:52]So there you go. We're showing off the Himalayan, Pakistan red, and Himalayan white.

[00:11:01]Here is some carob trees.

[00:11:09]Similar similar properties to chocolate.

[00:11:15]Carob is very good. Tastes like chocolate.

[00:11:18]I like a lot of desserts and drinks with carob.

[00:11:24]>> So, right over here >> is a kito tree, also called star apple.

[00:11:33]These are some little ones. And they'll turn purple. This variety will turn purple, but there is yellow chamitos, there's pink chamitos, and there's green chamitos. You can see a couple hanging there. And they're starting to turn purple. And this tree is just absolutely loaded.

[00:11:51]I like star apples a lot. I call them milk fruit. Lots of different plaras here.

[00:11:59]I don't know what kind that is.

[00:12:04]That is a massive, massive, massive sapadilla tree. Sapadia trees are some of the most hardy trees when it comes to wind resistance.

[00:12:20]They're also salt tolerant, but they can't really take much of a frost. But these trees have survived all the hurricanes of Florida. Once they get established, they're just known for having super strong roots. And a lot of people love sapadia. It's one of their favorite fruits. And a lot of people are like, "Oh, how does that fruit taste?

[00:12:39]How does this fruit taste?" And I can't describe it. But with sapadilla, it's actually very easy to describe. It tastes exactly like pear with brown sugar.

[00:12:46]>> Pear with brown sugar. Yes. Definitely one of my favorite fruits. Yeah, it's classic.

[00:12:53]>> And I mean, it's it's beautiful, too.

[00:12:55]The bark kind of looks like a oak tree or camper tree to me. And uh the new growth is is pushing right now. It's it's a beautiful plant. They got some trellis with some grapes growing on it. That's That grape has been there for quite a long time, too. It's got a nice trunk.

[00:13:12]>> Oh, check this out.

[00:13:14]>> Oh, beautiful.

[00:13:15]>> It's covered in flowers right now.

[00:13:19]I think this is a nona perparia.

[00:13:23]Um, it's called sunoa.

[00:13:26]>> I had a mulberry in my hair.

[00:13:28]>> This is a very unique fruit.

[00:13:33]It can grow in very cold places. It tolerates frost well. It's lowquat Japanese plum.

[00:13:43]And uh there's some fruit set on this one.

[00:13:50]A lot of people really enjoy the flavor of this fruit. And there's lots of different varieties of loquat. These loquat here I would say are about average size. They're going to turn fully yellowish orange. But these are about average size.

[00:14:07]>> I found like a rotten one on the ground, but smells fantastic. I bet it tastes really good.

[00:14:12]>> These are >> Try it though.

[00:14:14]>> These are a very good fruit. So, you can see that if you have different varieties, you'll have more of a prolong season on these because this tree doesn't have any ripe ones. And then this one here is just now starting to get ripe.

[00:14:30]So different seedlings will flower at different times.

[00:14:34]They got lots of different varieties of bamboo here.

[00:14:40]So here's a little patch of figs.

[00:14:44]Figs do really well in containers in Florida, but if you're going to put your fig in the ground, make sure you have the right variety that's nematode resistant. A lot of uh figs when they get planted in the ground, they just never grow. And that's because Florida has a certain type of nematode that doesn't agree with this plant, but they grow well in containers.

[00:15:04]Yes, raspberries grow in Florida. These are mysore raspberries. And these red ones actually aren't ripe, but that's actually a Florida native. It grows really well here.

[00:15:15]>> I forgot that I ate a miracle.

[00:15:16]>> It would take way too long to cover every plant here. And even if I tried, I would still probably miss some cuz they're just tucked in all over the place.

[00:15:25]They got a nice little starf fruit section going on over here. Lots of different star fruits, jackf fruit trees. And this looks like it is a hog plum or red hakote. Spondias perparia. Not anona perparia, but spondas perparia.

[00:15:53]coconuts.

[00:16:00]This is not one of my favorite fruits.

[00:16:05]You can't really see what they look like right now. They're called the tree cucumber. This plant is related, very closely related to starf fruit. It's in the avarola family. This is uh bimi and it's also called like the sour cucumber and the cucumber tree. Uh, a lot of people pickle these. If you don't pickle them, they are very hard to eat by themselves. They're also very high in oxalates.

[00:16:32]And in my opinion, oxalates have never bothered me, but some people avoid them.

[00:16:41]Let's talk about this sapadilla just for a second. There's all different kinds of sapadillas.

[00:16:47]Sapadillas are awesome. You can just see how prolific this tree is. These are little tiny sapadillas.

[00:16:55]But that tree is just absolutely loaded.

[00:16:59]And here we go with some guava.

[00:17:02]These are in the myrtle family. They got that very beautiful peeling bark.

[00:17:08]And guavas are very abundant, too. A lot of people don't like guavas a lot, but there's so many different kinds.

[00:17:15]Don't limit yourself just cuz you've only had one. There's lots of them to try and they're very ornamental and the flowers are beautiful as well.

[00:17:24]Looking for a velvet apple.

[00:17:28]I'm yet to taste a velvet apple and it doesn't look like the trees have any today. Heard several people tell me that they're very good.

[00:17:39]We're selling seedlings of the velvet apple on our shop, but we've never tasted it.

[00:17:46]These are some kind of little wild pimmens.

[00:17:50]I think they might be from another country. Let's see if we can find a plaque. So, a lot of the times these trees will have plaques, but sometimes they just don't. And so, this is called mountain pimmen, and it's native to Asia.

[00:18:08]And that one is the male. It doesn't have any flowers on it. And the one right next to it has all the fruit. And this fruit, it's it's pretty, but they're not really good. Let's see if we can find one on the ground and taste it.

[00:18:25]>> It's got like this juicy pulp around the seed.

[00:18:30]>> Aringent.

[00:18:31]>> Oh my gosh, >> it's aringent.

[00:18:36]>> The mountain pimmen is uniquely nutritious.

[00:18:43]This is I think like the Asian greenhouse or something.

[00:18:50]It's not the tropical America one.

[00:18:57]>> Just walking in here, you feel it much warmer.

[00:19:00]>> This one's variegated katuk. Has a pretty flower right here.

[00:19:07]This has the highest amount of protein for a plant.

[00:19:11]Yeah, I think by weight I've got I've read lots of different things online, but I think by weight it's around 55% protein. This is a super ornamental plant. It's a beautiful leaf. And the fruit, so not all the flowers will turn to fruit, but some of the flowers turn to like a little button mangoeen fruit.

[00:19:29]The fruit isn't very good, but it looks exactly like a mango steeen.

[00:19:35]And here is another variegated kuk. And that one is a much much more.

[00:19:41]>> Oh wow.

[00:19:42]>> Beautiful variegation pattern.

[00:19:44]>> This one's variegation pattern is full.

[00:19:46]>> Yeah, it's beautiful.

[00:19:47]>> Fully variegated. You usually don't see this.

[00:19:49]>> So they have purple mango ste in there.

[00:19:53]They got a couple bigger ones. There's a snake fruit salak palm. It's got some crazy thorns in it. They have a bread fruit and probably a 500gallon pot. I don't know how big that pot is.

[00:20:07]>> That's massive. I'm sure it's not in the pot anymore. I'm sure it's rooted into the ground.

[00:20:11]>> How big the red fruit leaves are. This tree is absolutely magnificent.

[00:20:20]>> This is one of my favorite all-time favorite smells for herbs right here.

[00:20:24]Variegated lemon bay rum.

[00:20:27]>> Wow.

[00:20:28]>> So, there's quite a few different bay rum trees.

[00:20:31]>> Wow.

[00:20:33]>> Oh my gosh. for example. Oh, this has some It does not like this much humidity. It's got some nasty fungus going on.

[00:20:44]>> The flavor profile of this is sweet and spicy and fall. I don't even know.

[00:20:53]>> So, there's bay laurel, bay rum, all spice, but bay rum, in my opinion, is my favorite. So they have these bread fruit trees and these rare articarpasses in this greenhouse because at around 50° Fahrenheit, the bread fruit trees will die. So they're ultra tropical.

[00:21:13]So they have them in here and they'll close these doors.

[00:21:17]If the temperature is going to get in the 50s, they'll close the doors.

[00:21:21]Some vanilla vanilla orchid growing up in there.

[00:21:27]It's vanilla. Lushia, another type of articarpus.

[00:21:32]And it's actually flowering.

[00:21:37]And I'm not sure if those are ripe up there.

[00:21:48]So, this is the limeberry bush. It's absolutely loaded with berries everywhere. There is thorns on this bush. If I had to guess how old it was, I'm going to say this thing is 10, 15 years old at least. Uh, we had some of these for sale on the shop and they sold out very quick. If you guys are interested in growing this little novelty citrus, we have the seeds available. Check the link below.

[00:22:14]>> Probably see how juicy that >> it's kind of gooey a little bit.

[00:22:17]>> Kind of sticky.

[00:22:17]>> I call it gusher fruit. It's like gushers. And the less rain we get, the drier it is, the more it'll be like a gusher. And it literally tastes like a lime or a lemon berry. It's very good.

[00:22:29]It's not sour.

[00:22:33]You can eat the skin. I'm not eating the skin. Here is a non pl a noni tree. And it got a little bit hurt by the cold, but it's fine. It's also diseased as well. There's some aphids on it. But noni is is a super fruit. Doesn't taste the best. It looks like a tonsil stone, and it's known for tasting like a tonsil stone. Here we have some sapadilla.

[00:23:00]Loaded. Absolutely loaded sapadilla.

[00:23:06]Really, really tasty fruits. So, right here is an aisle of mangoes.

[00:23:14]All different varieties.

[00:23:17]It's not um season for all of these, but we're gonna walk through and see what we can find.

[00:23:25]>> This is a really special plant. I could talk about this one all day. Minga. This is the world's most nutritious plant.

[00:23:32]It's [clears throat] a pioneer species.

[00:23:34]Grows really fast. Super drought tolerant. Takes full sun.

[00:23:38]The whole entire thing's edible. When you don't prune your maringa, it will grow straight up and usually just fall right on over. So, definitely harvest your moringa.

[00:23:50]Utilize its benefits.

[00:23:51]>> I try to eat this plant every day as a dry powder or raw.

[00:23:56]>> Yes, it's a absolute superfood.

[00:23:59]Ooh, look up here.

[00:24:03]>> Look at that.

[00:24:06]>> That's what it's called when a plant fruits off the bark.

[00:24:10]And this is some type of >> fig.

[00:24:13]>> Fig.

[00:24:13]>> Yeah. Oh, one just fell.

[00:24:16]>> Let's see.

[00:24:20]I see lots of little holes in it from beetles. Boring in it.

[00:24:23]>> Oo. Full of worms.

[00:24:25]>> Yeah. Sorry. Worms, not beetles.

[00:24:28]>> These are seashore mango steams.

[00:24:31]So beautiful.

[00:24:34]When these are fruing and the and the fruit is ripe, it's like little red Christmas ornaments all on the tree.

[00:24:40]Just so beautiful.

[00:24:43]You can see that right now they're just at this stage.

[00:24:49]Seashore mango steam.

[00:24:51]>> These are really tasty mango steeen.

[00:24:55]Extremely flavorful.

[00:24:56]>> Another type of mango steeen. This one is Garcinia spicada and they also call it the garlic mango steam.

[00:25:06]Super ornamental, very beautiful. Kind of looks like a cocoa plum or similar to the mammy apple, but a different growth habit. And you can see the flowers.

[00:25:17]Flowers are starting to come.

[00:25:23]>> Wow.

[00:25:23]>> Looks looks similar to a gumachama.

[00:25:26]>> This is so beautiful. Well, and I really think that just as an ornamental, this would be wonderful in someone's yard.

[00:25:35]I mean, the growth habit is so pretty.

[00:25:37]>> This is uh Garcinia Gambo >> and uh it's also called the Indian mango steeen or lemon mango steeen. There's a nice pretty green null in there.

[00:25:54]But here's what the fruit looks like.

[00:25:56]This is about the average size for this mango steeen. They are very sour, but for smoothies or for drinks, I'm sure this is very good. But but eating it out of hand, not a lot of people would like it because it is very sour.

[00:26:20]It's honestly very good.

[00:26:23]>> That is so good.

[00:26:25]So, she ate a miracle fruit.

[00:26:26]>> I had a miracle fruit. So, my taste buds are a little screwy right now, but this is so flavorful.

[00:26:34]Got a flavor, some type of resin flavor that I just really can't describe.

[00:26:39]>> So, I'm not sure on the number of mango trees that they have here. I'm going to guess they at least have 70 varieties of mango trees. At least.

[00:26:49]>> At least. Yeah.

[00:26:50]>> Like, so that mango is almost ripe.

[00:26:53]another month or two. But this mango tree decided to flower really late.

[00:27:00]That's crazy, actually.

[00:27:01]>> Late bloomer, y'all.

[00:27:04]>> But all these mango trees are different.

[00:27:06]I'm not sure if they really have two of the same mango trees here, maybe.

[00:27:13]But there's a lot of different mango trees. So, if you guys wanted to come here, peak mango season in summer, you could definitely taste tons of mangoes. The mangoes are literally just falling on the ground all around you.

[00:27:28]You just hear >> try mangoes you've never tried. You'll discover a new mango variety that is your now new favorite.

[00:27:36]>> Mhm.

[00:27:36]>> It's crazy. And same with the avocados.

[00:27:40]They have an overabundance of avocado trees here with great texture. and flavor. All different. Super different.

[00:27:48]>> And yeah, avocados are a little a little more definitely avocados have a longer season. So, basically anytime you come here, you're going to be able to try some kind of avocado, I would say. But with the mangoes, it's it's a 3 or 4 month season to to taste the mangoes.

[00:28:06]And but the avocados, they have early, mid, and late season ones.

[00:28:14]There's a nice coconut section with lots of different coconut varieties.

[00:28:22]Flowers smell super super floral.

[00:28:28]You can see there a couple macadamia nuts set on here.

[00:28:34]And macadamia nut is one that grows really well in Florida, but isn't [clears throat] being grown a lot. And one of the main reasons I hear a lot of people who have grown macadamia nuts and the reason why they're not growing more is because the squirrels. The squirrels are just crackheads for these. They go absolutely crazy for them. But they grow here. They grow well here. And it's a shame more farmers aren't growing them because I like macadamia nuts.

[00:29:06]These are the finger sop trees.

[00:29:11]I don't see any on there.

[00:29:17]Oh, right there.

[00:29:21]Some orange ones back in there. They kind of remind me of Pez dispensers, the candy. But they have a really, really good flavor.

[00:29:33]I like them a lot. in in the back corner of Fruit and Spice Park next to the mango trees. They have quite a few avocado varieties and most of them are just now flowering and setting fruit again for the first time.

[00:29:50]But let's see if we can find one with fruit on it still.

[00:29:58]These are beautiful back here.

[00:30:02]the color, the shape.

[00:30:08]Nice pretty mangoes.

[00:30:11]>> Yeah, you can see that most of the avocados though are in the process of flowering and starting to set right now.

[00:30:20]>> I don't think I see any.

[00:30:22]>> I always bring hot sauce to Fruit and Spice Park because these avocado trees.

[00:30:29]So, I didn't see any ripe avocados here.

[00:30:31]We didn't check all the trees yet, and there was a couple more we missed back that way. But for the most part, it looks like they're all starting to flower now.

[00:30:41]This is one of my favorite trees over here.

[00:30:48]Rainbow eucalyptus.

[00:30:52]>> Beautiful. Look at the peeling bark on this.

[00:30:57]Wow.

[00:30:59]It's like a painting.

[00:31:04]Wow.

[00:31:08]All these different layers and colors.

[00:31:13]How is this even real? So pretty.

[00:31:18]Even the roots are crazy. So, you can see they're doing some tours right now. If you come and pay for the day, um that tour is included, so you can hop on that little trolley anytime that you want.

[00:31:35]>> Tamaran tree. See a little one there.

[00:31:37]There's some bigger ones up there.

[00:31:40]>> Tamarans are really beautiful and I believe they're nitrogen fixing. There's another maringa tree. So, just like with all plants and all fruits and all flowers, there's infinite varieties. So, this is actually a different maringa variety than the one that we showed you before. And you can see a difference in its leaf.

[00:32:01]Over here we have African mango steeen or imbe.

[00:32:07]People call them imbe. And this is one of my favorite mango steeen. There's not a lot of flesh on the fruit, but the flavor of the fruit is so good. Uh it's really like candy. And I just saw a couple flowers a second ago. You can see that is not going to set a fruit, but that's where a flower was.

[00:32:28]>> Yeah, this is definitely one of my favorite fruits.

[00:32:30]>> Here's actually some fruit set for now.

[00:32:32]It's setting some fruit. Couple more up there.

[00:32:36]>> Oh, I see some here.

[00:32:37]>> Yeah. So, it helps to have uh different seedlings [clears throat] flowering side by side because some are male and some are female.

[00:32:46]Um, some are self-pollinating as well, but you can see that this looks like it was a male. It It made so many flowers and none of them set. They grow really, really tall. Kind of like a Christmas tree.

[00:33:10]>> They grow crazy.

[00:33:13]But something cool about the embezz is since they're from Africa, they can take the full sun. A lot of garcenas can't take the full sun. They're [clears throat] a little more cold hearty than your typical mango steeen, too. You know, these mature trees could tolerate a frost.

[00:33:28]>> How much different this moringa variety looks, but still it's all the same thing.

[00:33:34]The whole plant is edible.

[00:33:38]Another moringa.

[00:33:49]Come here, kitty kitty.

[00:33:51]>> Oh, a kitty cat.

[00:33:52]>> Hey, come here.

[00:33:55]>> And it's gone.

[00:33:57]>> So, they just cleaned this tree up since the last time we've been here. This is Aki.

[00:34:04]Um, this fruit is in Jamaica's national dish. Um, >> you can see one up there. See, >> the fruit tastes exactly like cheesy eggs. So, if you like cheese and you like eggs or if you just liked eggs and you're open-minded about fruit, this fruit is really good. Looks exactly like a brain, the part you eat. And surprisingly, it's good for the brain because like avocados, it has omega fatty acids.

[00:34:37]>> This tree is interesting.

[00:34:40]The fried egg tree.

[00:34:43]I have never seen it flower until today.

[00:34:50]Can kind of see why they call it the fried egg tree.

[00:34:55]So, behind me is another super underrated fruit. This is white sapote.

[00:34:59]Um, white sapote is related to citrus. It's in the citrus family, but it's like a custard on the inside, and you don't really want to get any of the skin in your mouth. The skin can have a type of resin flavor to it that isn't very desirable.

[00:35:20]But a lot of people like this fruit. I [clears throat] enjoy putting it in my smoothies.

[00:35:26]What do you think? Is it one of your top 10 favorites? white sapotes.

[00:35:29]>> Yeah, I'd say definitely.

[00:35:31]>> And this tree isn't very happy right now. You can see it's just got a lot of thris. You can look at the leaf and tell >> thris are eating it up.

[00:35:41]But [clears throat] and mine has quite a few diseases as well.

[00:35:45]But this tree is normally so prolific, it's absolutely insane.

[00:35:51]I think Laura Farm sells quite a few different white sapote varieties and so does Pine Island. This is another one in the citrus family, but a really distant relative. It's a wampy.

[00:36:04]Kind of looks like leachy or something like that. Uh, but this is a really good fruit. I really like it. I can't I can't describe the flavor. Texture is kind of gelatinous. So, I haven't really talked a lot about jackf fruit yet in this video. There's a lot of different jackfruit trees here. Um, but I wanted to get back in here more so I could show you these bigger ones. I figured they would have more fruit on them.

[00:36:30]>> Wow.

[00:36:32]>> These ones are like an average size, but jackf fruits are the biggest treeborn fruit in the world. And uh when you pick these, when you get a good one at at the right stage, it tastes exactly like Juicy Fruit bubblegum.

[00:36:47]I've heard that Juicy Fruit Bubblegum got their flavoring idea originally from Jackfruit.

[00:36:53]And >> look at that.

[00:36:57]In ideal environments, these things can begin producing in two years.

[00:37:03]And it's just absolutely crazy. A 2-year-old tree holding such a heavy fruit.

[00:37:10]They're a little messy to process and clean.

[00:37:14]Uh there's some varieties of jackf fruit that have lower latex. I would go with those ones. But when you when you when you get a jack fruit at the right stage and at the right time, they're awesome. I've eaten jackf fruit probably 10 different times and maybe only two or three of those times that I really really enjoy jackf fruit because it's about getting it at the right stage in the right time. And every seedling is going to be slightly different. So just getting familiar with your jackf fruit tree and when to pick it or getting a grafted variety. Here's a really ancient sapadia tree. And like I said earlier, these are some of the strongest trees for wind resistance. I mean, they're salt tolerant. They're just awesome. And the and the fruit is a lot of people's favorite fruit.

[00:38:00]There's more sapadillas. And these are some of the biggest trees around the park and also some of the biggest trees that you'll see um around Homestead period because they're one of the only trees that have survived all the hurricanes over the years.

[00:38:15]Yeah, this one is really big.

[00:38:27]This is kind of a controversial fruit. I enjoy it. The first time I had it, I didn't necessarily enjoy it, but I didn't hate it. Andrea, she really liked it the first time she had it. This is called Surinom Cherry.

[00:38:43]Eugenia Unifllora.

[00:38:45]This is a frost tolerant [music] plant.

[00:38:50]Um, super prolific. Makes lots of fruit.

[00:38:55]Like I said, it's a little bit controversial, but some people love it, some people hate it. You just need to try it for yourself.

[00:39:01]>> I genuinely love it.

[00:39:03]>> Yeah. And the dark one is much better than the red one. And there's one that is purple, purplish black instead of red. And it's much sweeter and has less of that flavor that uh a lot of people get turned off by >> that resin flavor, that medicinal resin flavor.

[00:39:22]The first time I had cernom cherry, I ate about 50 or more.

[00:39:28]>> I ate two or three.

[00:39:30]>> The whole nona zone over here.

[00:39:33]Sugar apples, custard apples, rolinas, sour sops, mountain sour saps, alamas, cheramoyas.

[00:39:41]They got a lot of different anonas packed in here. So, here's a really beautiful custard apple tree.

[00:39:47]>> Wow.

[00:39:49]>> And there's a lot of big fruits up there. It's loaded.

[00:39:53]>> Wow.

[00:39:53]>> Custard apple is one of my favorite anonas personally.

[00:39:59]I think the uh I think it's Anona ricticulada.

[00:40:03]These are another cool guava singium family.

[00:40:07]Feather leaf guava, fern leaf guava.

[00:40:10]This one is one of my favorites for foliage.

[00:40:14]The fruit is very tiny but super ornamental. Beautiful bark. Here's one of those big uh types of bay trees.

[00:40:23]The allspice.

[00:40:25]>> Love all spice.

[00:40:26]>> It's got a good size to it. It's definitely old. Yeah, I think that's past guava.

[00:40:33]Those are really good.

[00:40:35]Not like a typical guava flavor. Almost kind of taste a nona.

[00:40:39]>> Oh, this one has a lot of fruit on it.

[00:40:42]>> Little flowers. This is a really big tamarind species.

[00:40:47]This one is super old.

[00:40:50]>> Huge tamarind. A >> really cool palm tree. The leaves are like 30 foot long.

[00:40:55]>> Yeah. Look. Check these leaves out.

[00:40:59]Here's two uh blue jabotic cabbasier next doors.

[00:41:06]There's a couple fruit on there.

[00:41:16]This one has a really nice peeling bark as well.

[00:41:19]>> These are beautiful and they have an interesting flavor, but they're not a true job. Yeah, this is mercier and jabica is plinia.

[00:41:29]>> Yeah, >> closely related but but you can see how it fruits on the tips of the branches which is still off the bark but the jibotic cabba fruits mainly off the bark and sometimes up on the tips. I really like this plant coming up. This is another mango spoon. Well, there's actually a pineapple guava therea which doesn't fruit well here but grows all right. Um, but this one here is the Cuban mangoeen. I believe it's Garcinia aristada.

[00:42:00]And the leaves are very, very pointy.

[00:42:05]Almost like a like a thorn for sure. It could cut you.

[00:42:10]>> But the fruit is very good on this mango steam.

[00:42:14]It's very prolific.

[00:42:19]You can see how many flowers are going off in there.

[00:42:27]Fortunately, there's no fruit.

[00:42:28]Chacharoo. I've tasted this a chacharoo and it's not the best. These are chacharoo fruits. Stay very small. We actually have some right here, but they're not ripe. You can see it's trying trying to do this its thing, but the tree is growing on the ground.

[00:42:48]Now, there's lots of there's lots of varieties of all fruits, and this aacheroo here isn't the best.

[00:42:56]>> And aacharoo is actually my favorite fruit.

[00:42:58]>> Yeah.

[00:42:59]>> So, >> but if I ate this aacharoo, it would not be my favorite fruit. But the acharoo that we had was a very special variety and it was our favorite fruit. There's not enough people with propagation material to massproduce this plant. Uh it takes about 10 years from seed to begin fruiting. But the good news is people have been collecting these varieties for a a while and we should finally start to have some people who are offering grafted versions.

[00:43:30]>> Here is another acheroo.

[00:43:34]This one's just starting to set some fruit. It's trying, but it's a shrub type of tree.

[00:43:45]It's interesting.

[00:43:46]>> I'm not sure. I don't see a plaque on this one, but I think this one is the Mexican mango steeen or Luke's mango steeen. That's a really good one. The fruit gets very large. Well, this one's pretty cold hearty. This is Gumachama.

[00:44:01]And that flower is just gorgeous. The cherry on this one is my favorite Eugenia. I'll say it.

[00:44:10]Problem is it just does one crop a year.

[00:44:12]But the good news is the crop is large, so you'll get a lot. It is another Eugenia. This one's Panga tuba.

[00:44:20]This fruit is definitely a controversial one as well. If you like sour fruits, you'll probably like it.

[00:44:27]I think this is the the Asian greenhouse or maybe the South American one.

[00:44:34]That's a cacao tree. This is where chocolate comes from.

[00:44:42]Here's a sour sop.

[00:44:44]This is a really popular one going around right now. And they have these ones all in the greenhouse because these ones are some of the most cold sensitive ones that you can grow.

[00:45:01]So, another cool thing about cacao, as you can see, is it's called a flororis as well. It fruits off the bark. And it's really cool to see a bean pod like this big just hanging off of the tree.

[00:45:12]And they're typically yellow and red are the two main varieties of cacao.

[00:45:17]>> This section right in front of us here is they're jabbed cabbas.

[00:45:26]They're kind of up on a mound.

[00:45:31]So, you'll see some of these trees are blown over and that's from old hurricanes.

[00:45:40]>> Wow.

[00:45:46]Look how absolutely prolific this is.

[00:45:53]And the ground has so many peels.

[00:45:58]Beautiful.

[00:46:03]These are all different varieties, so they're all going to have different growth habits, fruit flavor.

[00:46:12]These are the trees that we personally specialize in.

[00:46:21]What attracts you the most about the job?

[00:46:25]For me, it's just really, really captivating when you see the fruit on the bark. But not only that, it's its growth habit. It's very ornamental. It's kind of like a natural bonsai tree and it stays small. So, for container culture, it works really well. And I like that because if you're somebody who has an apartment, if you're somebody who lives up north, you can grow this tree fairly easily and just bring it indoors in the winter and you'll still get fruit. Or you can have a greenhouse.

[00:47:13]>> So good.

[00:47:22]So, here's an really nice uh yellow jabotic cabba. And again, this isn't a true jabotic cabba. This is one that fruits off the tips. It's a mercier instead of a pennia. Uh they call it yellow jabotic cabba. I don't really know why actually. Maybe because it fruits off the bark. But this one has such a good flavor, but the problem is there's only a little bit of meat. but for drinks, for desserts, for flavoring.

[00:47:48]Then over here starts like a whole banana zone. And they've got tons of different banana varieties. Maybe like 50 banana varieties at least, I'd say. I don't know how many.

[00:48:00]>> Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

[00:48:03]All different flavors, colors.

[00:48:28]Lots and lots and lots of bananas.

[00:48:35]They have like a cool herb garden demonstration.

[00:48:40]Really nice, beautiful variegated cassava.

[00:48:48]Merry gold.

[00:48:52]So beautiful. I wish I had all this to garden in.

[00:48:58]Wow.

[00:49:02]>> Yeah, there's still a lot of open space.

[00:49:06]>> Mhm. A >> lot of potential for this area.

[00:49:10]And these are beautiful. Look at these little flowers.

[00:49:17]Little lily flowers.

[00:49:21]So pretty.

[00:49:23]This is comfrey right here.

[00:49:28]I really enjoy growing this plant a lot.

[00:49:32]This was one of my favorite plants in our greenhouse just for its properties.

[00:49:39]And it's beauty as well.

[00:49:42]Oh, this is the uh Moian mint.

[00:49:48]>> Moian mint tea.

[00:49:49]>> Mohean mint.

[00:49:49]>> I think they also call it Bahama berry.

[00:49:52]>> Bahama berry. That's right.

[00:49:55]>> Smells so good.

[00:49:57]>> Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I hope that we inspired you to eat more fruits and grow more tropical fruit trees. And definitely check out this beautiful botanical garden if you're ever in Homestead or South Florida.

[00:50:13]>> So, we're going to have to wrap it up right here. Our phone is low on percentage, but hope you guys enjoyed and if you made it this far, thank you.