Atis -Philippine Fruits

The fruit is usually round or oval, slightly pine cone-like, 6-10 cm diameter and weighing 100-230 g, with a scaly or lumpy skin. The fruit flesh is edible, white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. The seeds are scattered through the fruit flesh; they are blackish-brown, 12-18 mm long, and hard and shiny.

Different cultures have many names for the species. In English it is most widely known as Sugar-apple or Sweetsop, also sometimes custard-apple (especially in India) though technically incorrectly, as this name usually refers to another closely related species. In Latin America regional names include anón, anón de azucar, anona blanca, fruta do conde, cachiman, and many others. In India it is known as araticum, "shareefa", sitaphal or seethaphal (literally meaning "sita fruit"), and in Indonesia, srikaya. The Taiwanese call it Sakya (Traditional Chinese: 釋迦; pinyin: shìjiā; Taiwanese: sek-khia, sek-kia) because one cultivar resembles the top part of Sakyamuni's (釋迦牟尼) head; it is also known as Buddha Head in Taiwan. Its name in Burmese is awza thee. In the Philippines it is called atis.

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Duhat (Java Plum)

Duhat which is also known as Java plum (Syzygium cumini), is oblong or round in shape, about the size of a medium to large olive, and possesses a purple to black (when ripe) thin skin and a white pulp surrounding a single seed. The fruit is generally described as “aphud” or astringent and can be distasteful to quite sweet. “Aphud” is a uniquely Filipino description, as the fruit isn’t just astringent, it reacts with your tongue and mouth lining in an almost numbing manner, albeit fleeting.

Duhat are native to India, Burma, Sri Lanka and the Andaman islands and is believed to have made its way to the Philippines in pre-historic times.The tree thrives throughout the archipelago. Extremely hardy, the tree bears fruit in varying degrees of abundance from season to season. When it bears fruit, the trees are messy and smelly.

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Dalandan (Orange)

Dalandan or kahel falls under the category late oranges. Originally from China, dalandans have adapted to local conditions. When fresh, dalandans have a bright and deep green skins, smell great, possess a natural shine and are firm to the touch. They have an obovate shape.

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Makopa (Malay's Apple)

Makopa is a bell shaped-fruit with waxy skin that comes in pink, white, green and purple colors. It has crisp and light white pulp.

Makopa is native to the Malay archipelago thus it is known to be Malay's apple. It is believed to have been introduced to the Philippines in prehistoric times. There are two main types of makopa in the country; Makopa (Syzygium samarangense )and Makopang Kalabaw( Syzygium malaccensis); one being the smaller variety and the other being the larger variety.

The fruit is mostly eaten raw here in the Philippines with rock salt. Makopa in other languages is known by the names malay apple, rose apple, java apple, curacao apple, pomme de java. In the Philippines, Visayans call it as tambis, while others call it tersana, yanba or yanbu.

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Tiessa

This fruit is heart-shaped with orang-yellow color and is said to one of the best sources of vitamin A. It is like boiled kamote (sweet potatos) in texture because of its fibrous, sticky and thick flesh.It is usually eaten ripe as dessert, or used in preparing sherbet, ice cream and juice.

There are only two known types of tiessa- one producing round fruit containing 2 to 3 seeds, and the other yielding elongated fruits having a single seed.

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Sineguelas (Spanish Plum)

Sineguelas (Spondias purpurea) or Spanish Plum in English is approximately 1 to 1.5 inches in length and start off purplish or maroon green and ripen to a yellow or dark red state. The skin is taut and shiny and the flesh firm when unripened and slightly astringent or soft, sweet and mushy when it is ripe. They are in season from April to June and they peak in May.


Sineguelas is a native to Mexico and the western coast of Central and South America. The plant was brought over by the Spaniards and thrives in the Philippine climate.

Although mostly consumed as a fruit,in other countries, the fruit is made into jelly, pickled in vinegar, or dried to preserve the fruit.

It has several common names; in the Caribbean islands it is known as yellow mombin or hog plum, while in Jamaica it is called Spanish plum or gully plum. In Ghana, it is hog plum or Ashanti plum. Other common names include true yellow mombin, golden apple or Java plum.

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Mangosteen

The fruit is round, dark-purple to red-purple and smooth externally; 1 1/3 to 3 in (3.4-7.5 cm) in diameter. It is capped by the prominent calyx at the stem end and with 4 to 8 triangular, flat remnants of the stigma in a rosette at the apex. The rind is 1/4 to 3/8 in (6-10 mm) thick, red in cross-section, purplish-white on the inside. It contains bitter yellow latex and a purple, staining juice. There are 4 to 8 triangular segments of snow-white, juicy, soft flesh (actually the arils of the seeds). The fruit may be seedless or have 1 to 5 fully developed seeds, ovoid-oblong, somewhat flattened, 1 in (2.5 cm) long and 5/8 in (1.6 cm) wide, that cling to the flesh. The flesh is slightly acid and mild to distinctly acid in flavor and is acclaimed as exquisitely luscious and delicious.

There are numerous variations in nomenclature: among Spanish-speaking people, it is called mangostan; to the French, it is mangostanier, mangoustanier, mangouste or mangostier; in Portuguese, it is mangostao, mangosta or mangusta; in Dutch, it is manggis or manggistan; in Vietnamese, mang cut; in Malaya, it may be referred to in any of these languages or by the local terms, mesetor, semetah, or sementah; in the Philippines, it is mangis or mangostan.

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