The delicious butiá fruits. Taste of childhood.

[Alberto]

I just harvested the fruits of the delicious butiá (Butia eriospatha), at the point I prefer them, when they start to turn yellow. Taste of childhood! The seeds are easily released from the fiberless and juicy mesocarp in this variety.

[Fusca]

I'm still waiting for my Butia to flower and hope it's soon!  I'm sure it's odorata but eriospatha would be a better fruit source!

[ck_in_fla]

My mother used to make jelly with the seeds from our Butia palms.  It was quite good as I remember.  She used to give jars of this jelly to friends as gifts.

This was back in the late 1960's and early 1970's. 

When my parents moved to their retirement home, I helped my dad move one of the smaller Butia palms to that house.  I remember it like it was yesterday.

[tinman10101]

i love eating butia fruits.  mine i got was labeled compacta but regardless, to me the fruits taste like pineapple.  

thats great @Alberto ... i love when you bite into something and it instantly transports you to child ... for me that would be eating tamarind.    

[Tyrone]

The Butia odorata fruit makes a good drop of wine too. I wonder what Butia eriospatha wine would be like. I think I need to get hold of this species somehow. 

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

Beautiful B. eriospatha. Can not find a source here so do not have one but the fruits on B. odorata are abundant. They are delicious but I will have to try them at the stage you are picking them. I think I get them when they are too ripe as they only last a day or two before rotting. 

[Harry’s Palms]

I remember the first time I was down on my hill and noticed the fruit on my silver blue Butia . I grabbed a couple of them and just bit into them . Not much fruit , mostly seed. The taste , to me , was apricot…very sweet apricot. Since that time the squirrels found out and I rarely see any fruit after the inflorescence. 

[Alberto]

On 1/30/2024 at 12:10 AM, Jeff zone 8 N.C. said:

Beautiful B. eriospatha. Can not find a source here so do not have one but the fruits on B. odorata are abundant. They are delicious but I will have to try them at the stage you are picking them. I think I get them when they are too ripe as they only last a day or two before rotting. 

Exactly!

[Jonathan Haycock]

Broadley Green nursery, South Australia had this Butia growing that produced lovely fruit with zero string. It was like pineapple, but more complex. Very tasty and full of juice, I had no problem cleaning the seeds 😋😂.

Not sure on the exact species, but I will plant it's offspring in my own garden in the hopes it will one day produce the same quality fruit.

[Alberto]

11 minutes ago, Jonathan Haycock said:

Broadley Green nursery, South Australia had this Butia growing that produced lovely fruit with zero string. It was like pineapple, but more complex. Very tasty and full of juice, I had no problem cleaning the seeds 😋😂.

Not sure on the exact species, but I will plant it's offspring in my own garden in the hopes it will one day produce the same quality fruit.

Very ripe B.eriospatha fruits also look like this. To be certain of the species ( eriospatha / odorata) you will have to see the brown spathe covered with a thick layer of wooly tomentum of the B.eriospatha

[DoomsDave]

For a short time in 1993 I lived in that section of Long Beach California just east of downtown Long Beach and a few blocks in from the shore, full of of motels converted to cheap apartments.

One of the tree lawns had this awesome Butea setting fruit like apricots. 
 

They were SO GOOD! Wolfed down like twelve of them; saved the seeds. Sprouted them sold them to various people after practically drooling as I described the fruit.
 

[Harry’s Palms]

I only got fruit one year on mine . To me , it tasted like very ripe Apricot. Not much fruit and kind of stringy but very sweet . Harry