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| Pometia Pinnata |
Fijian longan or Island lychee (Pometia pinnata) is a kind of tropical fruit come front South East Asia and Pacific Islands as their origin habitat. Now Pamotia Pinnata grows concentrated in Papua Island and has it local name Matoa. This tree product a sweet and nice fruit named the same with its tree Fijian Logan or Matoa.
The taste of this fruit is combination between Lychee and Durian, two kinds of fruits that is the favorite in South East Asia regions. Even though has its very nice taste, so far this fruit is not yet popular outside the area of grown. Even in Indonesia, where Matoa grow, many people are not familiar. So far, this fruit tree is not yet widely cultivated and is still a forest crop. The reason may be the reason why Matoa not well known, even in their growing area. Once again, this fruit has a unique flavor, fresh sweet and deliciously scented.
Characteristic of the tree:
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| The tree |
Matoa (Pometia pinnata) is a typical fruit tree of Papua, relatively large trees with an average height of 18 meters with an average maximum diameter of 100 cm. Generally fruiting once a year. Flowering in July to October and fruiting 3 or 4 months later.
Matoa fruit spread in Papua are in almost all regions of the plains to a height of ± 1200 m ASL. It grows well in areas that dry soil conditions (not flooded) with a thick layer of soil. Climate needed for good growth is climate with high rainfall (> 1200 mm / year).
This plant is easy to adapt to hot or cold conditions. This tree is also resistant to insects, which generally spoil the fruit. The wood is rather hard to be made for building materials such as windows, doors, flooring and others. Seedling propagation of plants through seeds. Plants started to bear fruit at the age of 7-8 years after planting.
Taproot. The leaves are large, the form are round to elongated round , leaves bones protruding down, flat edge. Stems up to 1 m. Leafy compound, leaves are arranged alternate, , 4-12 pairs of leaflets. When young leaves are bright red, having grown into a green, oblong shape, length 30-40 cm, width of 8-15 cm.
Compound flower and grows from the stalk tip, the form of flower is funnel. Round flower stalk, short, green, with petal-haired, green color. The stamens are short but the amount is a lots, white color. White-stalk, rounded base, white with a crown composed 3-4 strands of ribbon-shaped, yellow.
The Fruit:
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| Fijian Longan or Matoa |
Round or oval fruit along 5-6 cm, the outer skin is smooth the color when the fruit ripe are yellowish green, yellow or red to black (depending on variety). Meat mushy fruit, white to yellowish, with a thickness varying from thin to thick. Round seed shape, light brown to blackish.
Sweet fruit flavors with aromas of fruit such as durian, the fruit has a lot of water, similar to litchi fruit. Clustered fruit in the fruit stalk. Each stem of the fruit contains 23-76 pieces weighing between 0,5 - 1,0 kg. Island lychee fruit rich with vitamin C and vitamin E, those nutrients serves among other as an antioxidant.
Scientific classification:
- Kingdom: Plantae (plants)
- Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (vascular)
- Super Division: Spermatophyta (produce seed)
- Division: Magnoliophyta (flowering)
- Class: Magnoliopsida (dashed two / dicots
- Sub-class: Rosidae
- Order: Sapindales
- Family: Sapindaceae
- Genus: Pometia
- Species: Pometia pinnata, Pometia acuminata and Pometia coreaceae.
Economic and Ecological Value.
Matoa fruit has promising economic prospects as a productive fruit crop. But unfortunately the business prospects of this fruit are still not being worked out in a large and planned manner. Along with the prospect of economic value, this fruit also contains ecological value for the improvement of the environment and ecosystem.
As a delicious fruit to consume, Fijian Longan also contains quite large amounts of vitamins C and E, as well as several other anti-oxidant elements. This can be an alternative for the world to add to the treasury of natural healthy foods. The need for tropical fruits is of course very large globally, this is the main factor why I put the economic prospects of this fruit into consideration.
Timber has many benefits, but now the use of forest wood will always be accompanied by environmental issues. Utilization of forest wood will go hand in hand with forest destruction if it is carried out carelessly without taking into account the sustainability of the forest as the lungs of the world and the guardian of fresh water supplies.
As I mentioned above, the Fujian Longan tree is a good hardwood to use for wood needs, sure if it is commercialized by observing the principles of a sustainable plantation industry, both economically and ecologically.
So far, especially in Papua Island as one of the biggest producers of this fruit, Matoa fruit is still mostly obtained as forest products and derived from wild or semi-wild plants. Of course, as a potential fruit that has not been glimpsed by the big plantation industries, the fruit production so far is still far from its true potential.
