Tortoise Durians, Turtle-High Fruits from Durio Testudinarum Trees?

Summary: Durio testudinarum trees get tortoise durians, musky, shiny fruits that grow, like the woody plants' self-pollinated blooms, from bases, roots and trunks.

Durio testudinarum fruit illustration by Odoardo Beccari and G. Anichini; O. Beccari, Malesia (1889), vol. III, Plate XIV: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Durian-like distribution ranges and life cycles apply to Durio testudinarum trees even though their physical appearances are atypical in fruit arrangements since tortoise durians adhere to bases, roots and trunks, not branches.

Tortoise durian trees bear their common name as the English equivalent of the local term durian kura-kura ("thorn tortoise") because of spiny and, perhaps, tortoise-accessible, allusions. They carry the equivalent of the English common name in the same-meaninged scientific name Durio testudinarum, from the Malay duri ("thorn") and the Latin testūdō ("tortoise"). Current taxonomies defer to scientific descriptions of flowering specimens from Mount Mattang near Kutching, Sarawak, Malaysia, in 1889 by Odoardo Beccari (Nov. 16, 1843-Oct. 25, 1920).

The Malvaceae mallow family member exists in lowland mixed dipterocarp ("two-winged fruit," from the Greek δίς, dís, "twice"; πτερόν, pterón, "wing"; and καρπός, karpós, "fruit") forests.

The life cycles of tortoise durian trees facilitate cultivated and wild leafing, flowering, fruiting and seeding months from self-pollinating pollen-making male stamens and pollen-receiving female pistils.

Dark seeds get dispersed after going through the digestive tracts of native wildlife in lowland Darussalam, Brunei; Borneo and Kalimantan, Indonesia; and Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia. Capsule- and globe-like, gray- to green-yellow, 3.94- to 5.91-inch (100- to 150-millimeter) diameter husks hold people- and wildlife-friendly edible pulp and seeds within five weak-seamed lobes. Cone- and pyramid-shaped, 0.29- to 0.39-inch- (7- to 10-millimeter-) long spines inundate the outer surface of tortoise durian fruit husks and inspire the genus's thorny meanings.

The life cycles of Durio testudinarum trees respectively juggle tortoise durian flowers, fruits and seeds from September through February, October through January and November through January.

Tortoise durian fruits, aril-like (from the Latin arillus, "dried grape") in keeping animal-dispersed, germination-friendly seeds within fleshy pulp, know the brightest white-yellows of all edible durians.

Tortoise durian fruits line up around tree bases and trunks and atop low-lying rounded buttress roots instead of atop tree branches, like eight other edible species. They maintain caramel- to white-yellow jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus-) like stringy flesh or, around caramel-brown, same-scented seeds, waxy textures; candy-, pineapple- and vanilla-like tastes; and musky scents. They nestle into the same niches that net hermaphroditic (from the Greek Ερμής, Ermís, "[male] messenger" and Ἀφροδίτη, Aphroditē, [love goddess born from] sea foam") flowers.

Durio testudinarum trees in moist, well-drained soil pHs 6 to 7 offer pale, 80- to 100-clustered flowers and scrumptious fruits with candied pineapple- and vanilla-like juices.

Tortoise durian fruit trees proliferate in temperatures between 77 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (25 and 30 degrees Celsius) up through 2,296.59-foot (700-meter) altitudes above sea level.

Durio testudinarum trees queue up 32.81- to 82.02-foot (10- to 25-meter) heights, not durian-typical 131.23- to 164.04-foot (40- to 50-meter) heights and 3.94-foot (1.2-meter) trunk diameters. Local and regional agro-industrial, culinary, herbal and timber product lines result in International Union for Conservation of Nature vulnerability statuses for tortoise durian habitats and populations. Their pink- to red-brown heartwood and red-, white- or yellow-brown sapwood shows up in board-cupping, coarse-grained, low-cost, non-durable, powder-post beetle- and termite-intolerant furniture and packing cases.

Durio testudinarum trees tender the brightest flesh, muskiest scents and smallest sizes of the only non-branch-borne edible durian fruits from the only successfully self-pollinated durian flowers.

Durio testudinarum illustration by describer Odoardo Beccari; G. Anichini, lithography; O. Beccari, Malesia (1889), vol. III, Plate XIII: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Durio testudinarum fruit illustration by Odoardo Beccari and G. Anichini; O. Beccari, Malesia (1889), vol. III, Plate XIV: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46108856

Durio testudinarum illustration by describer Odoardo Beccari; G. Anichini, lithography; O. Beccari, Malesia (1889), vol. III, Plate XIII: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46108854

For further information:

Beccari, Odoardo. 1889. "8. Durio testudinarum Becc. sp. n." Malesia: Raccolta di Osservazione Botaniche Intorno alle Piante dell'Arcipelago Indo-Malese e Papuano, volume terzo: 244-246. Firenze-Roma, Italy: Fratelli Bencini, 1886-1890.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46108945
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/malesiaracco318861890becc#page/244/mode/1up

"Durio testudinarius Becc." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/100327457

Gasik, Lindsay. 21 January 2014. Year of the Durian. Amazon Digital Services LLC.

Lim, T.K. (Tong Kwee). 2012. Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants: Volume 1, Fruits. Dordrecht, Netherlands; Heidelberg, Germany; London, England; New York NY: Springer.

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 October 2014. "Durio Grandiflorus Botanical Illustrations and Ghost Durian Images." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/10/durio-grandiflorus-botanical.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 October 2014. "Durio Dulcis Botanical Illustrations, Sweet Red Jungle Durian Images." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/10/durio-dulcis-botanical-illustrations.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 October 2014. "Durio Oxleyanus Trees: Least Scaly Leaves, Scary Spines, Smelly Fruits." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/10/durio-oxleyanus-trees-least-scaly.html

Subhadrabandhu, Suranant; and Saichol Ketsa. 2001. Durian: King of Tropical Fruit. CABI (Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International). Wellington, New Zealand: Daphne Brasell Associates.

World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1998. "Durio testudinarum." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 1998: e.T34570A9876131. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.1998.RLTS.T34570A9876131.en.
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/34570/0