The Amazing Jabuticaba continues to amaze.
(Ja-boo-chee-caw-ba)

We have two Jabuticaba trees in our backyard. A male and a female tree. What is the difference? It is all a matter of pollination. If you don't have a male with the females you get anywhere from none to few berries.

The first three pics are of our female tree. This is the third generation of fruit this season. That in itself is Amazing, but look at the proliferation of berries and their size. WOW!

These berries are about 1" in diameter (2.5 cm). They are full of juice and waiting for people, dogs or birds to pick them.




This group is out of reach of the dogs but Judy can reach them and she does, a lot! *SMILE*




A friend of ours had a Golden Lab that used to pick the berries and take them to the cat for her to eat. She never learned to pick them for herself. Now that the Lab has died my friend must pick the berries and take them to the cat. Well that sure shows who is boss!!! Our cats cannot reach the berries because there are too many "Viscious" dogs guarding the trees. Hahahaha!




Here is the male tree. Notice how few berries there are. Also, these berries are not as sweet as the ones on the female tree. I tested the theory myself and can vouch for this fact. Yuck!!!




Judy loves the Jabuticaba as do most Brasileiros but I prefer berries I am more familiar with such as Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries and Cherries. I find Jabuticaba may be an acquired taste. I do love Jabuticaba jam though. Mmmmmmmmm! Maybe I will get to love the berries and then I can pig out on them too, providing Judy, the dogs and the birds leave me some. *SMILE*

The way you eat them is put the entire berry in your mouth, split it open, suck out the juice and flesh and then discard the skin and the seed that is inside. The flesh has a distinct taste like no fruit I know.

We have many avian visitors to our trees. We have all the common birds from this area such as I See You, Greens (our name for green parrots), Blue Birds and many more. Greens are real chatter boxes. They make a lot of noise and there are many in Águas da Prata. You hear them all the time. They usually fly around in groups of 2 to 16. But the latest visitors were a surprise.

On Thursday (Sept. 21) I heard what sounded like a crowd of Green Parrots in the trees outside my window. Instead it was just one HUGE parrot. It was all green and almost the size of a large Macaw. It took this pic but it is not as good as I like because of the sky in the background. I enhanced it so you could see our visitor. That is a "used" tangerine in the tree in front of the Jabuticaba.




Two days later, Saturday morning, there was a much louder noise. Our new friend brought his mate to look over the Jabuticaba tree. They had an animated and loud discussion about our trees. These beautiful parrots are about 18" long (45 cm).





We have been seeing many new birds including Toucans, in the neighbourhood for the last few days but not in our yard. The Toucans come over the mountain and then fly over our house. They are starting to visit Águas da Prata in big numbers now. Any day now we may have Toucans in the yard also.

Such is life in the Spring in paradise!


We will bring you more about the Amazing Jabuticaba as changes develop.


Photos by Urso Branco