Spondias dulcis or Ambrella

Spondias dulcis or Ambrella or Kedondong (Malaysia and Indonesia), is another kind of typical tropical fruit that, but not well known in other parts of the world. The  fruit is green when young and becoming yellow when old  with a sweet sour taste, well known in many countries both in equatorial Asia, and Latin America.

Plant characteristics:

Kedondong  included in the Angiospermae, this fast-growing tree can reach up to 60 ft (18 m) in its native area of grow. 

Has a woody stem (lignosus) the form usually loud and strong, rounded shape trunk and grows upright, surface smooth stems and greenish white, single root as usual in woody trees.

This plant included to the compound-leaved plants, the widest part is in the middle of the leaf blade elliptic (ovalis), tapered leaf base (acutus), tapered leaf tip (acuminatus), green leaf color with leaves 5-8 cm long and width of 3-6 cm. Viewed from the direction of the bones of a large branch of the leaf blade, leaf kedondong include reinforced pinnate leaves with leaflets that odd number (imparipinnatus), and the child leaves in pairs, average leaf edge (integer), the layout of scattered leaves (folia sparsa), leaf surface slick (laevis) and shiny (nitidus).

Ambrella include diverse flowering plants (inflorescentia), where the mother stalk-shaped panicles held monopodial branching, 24-40 cm long, long petals ± 5 cm. Stamen number is eight, yellow, petals were four to five, oblong, yellowish-white flower color.

The Fruit:

This fruit has a thin outer layer of the wall or stiff like leather and the inner layer is thick, soft, and watery and often edible, oval-shaped, single fleshy fruit, having a diameter of ± 5 cm and fibrous, yellowish-green color of the fruit with an average ± weighs 0.7-1 kg / fruit, the fruit usually grows in large numbers.

Sweet sour  fruit taste when ripe, white fruit flesh color and becomes yellow when ripe. The seed is white,  branch out and  hard enough.

The fruit can be eaten fresh, become a kind of salad, made sweets and various other foods.

Nutritive Values  : (per 100g edible portion):

Energy 46.0 k cal, protein 0.2 g, Fat 0.1 g, Carbohydrates 12.4 g, Calcium 56.0 mg, Phosphorus 67.0 mg, Iron 0.3 mg, Carotene 205.0 ug, Thiamine 50.0 ug, Riboflavin 20.0 ug, Vit. C 36.0 mg.

Source : Agricultural Dept. Government of Sri Lanka.

Scientific classification:

• Kingdom: Plantae (Plants)
•       Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (Vascular Plants)
•           Super Division: Spermatophyta (Produces seeds)
•               Division: Magnoliophyta (flowering plants)
•                   Class: Magnoliopsida (dashed two / dicots)
•                       Sub Class: Rosidae
•                           Order: Sapindales
•                               Family: Anacardiaceae
•                                   Genus: Spondias
•                                       Species: Spondias dulcis.