Skip to content

Your account

With an account, your progress (modules read, XP, badges, cards, notebook, pack, challenges) follows you on every device. Without one, it stays in this browser.

or
Deadly🍽️ Edible☠️ To avoid

🍈 Ackee

Blighia sapida · Sapindaceae

🌴 Tropical
🧠 To remember it“Closed ackee, mouth closed” - only the fruit that split open by itself on the tree can be eaten.
Ackee — Blighia sapida

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Medium-sized tree with shiny pinnately compound leaves. The pear-shaped fruit with three lobes turns from green to bright red-orange when ripe, then splits open spontaneously into three valves, revealing three glossy black seeds each surrounded by a fleshy cream-yellow aril - the only edible part, and only at this stage.

  1. three-lobed red-orange fruit that splits open spontaneously when ripe
  2. fleshy cream-yellow aril surrounding a glossy black seed
  3. closed or still green fruit = absolute stop sign
Size10-15 m
Floweringspring, fruits in 2-3 months
Habitatnative to West Africa, widely introduced and cultivated in the Caribbean (culinary emblem of Jamaica), warm tropical areas

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Itself, unripe (Blighia sapida (fruit vert/fermé))deadly - fruits that do not open naturally contain up to 20 times more hypoglycin A than ripe fruit (StatPearls), causing "Jamaican vomiting sickness" (severe hypoglycemia, seizures, coma, death)

To tell them apart: harvest ONLY fruits that have already split open spontaneously on the tree; never force open a closed fruit; also discard the pinkish membrane underneath the aril and the seeds, which are always toxic

🍽️ Eating it

Partsyellow aril only, from fruits that opened spontaneously
Seasonvariable depending on the region, often 1-2 harvests per year
Tastecreamy texture similar to scrambled eggs once cooked, mild nutty flavor

Preparation : only pick arils from fruits that opened by themselves on the tree (never those fallen on the ground for a long time, nor forced open); remove the pink vein/membrane and the black seeds; wash thoroughly then cook (boiled or sautéed) before eating - cooking does NOT make an immature fruit edible, it only prepares an already ripe fruit

151kcalEnergy
2.9gProtein
15.2gFat
0.8gCarbs

cooked aril, indicative value from Jamaican culinary literature

💊 Healing with it

aucun

Level of evidence : traditional use — StatPearls - Ackee Fruit Toxicity

⚠️ the bark, leaves, and seeds are toxic and have no documented safe medicinal use

Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.