Nyree Zerega, Diane Ragone, and Background

Breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg, Moraceae) is a staple crop in Oceania, where it was originally domesticated. It is a versatile tree crop with many uses including construction, medicine, animal feed, and insect repellent. However, it is principally grown as a source of carbohydrates and is an important component of agroforestry systems. Unlike many herbaceous starch crops harvested for their vegetative storage tissues, breadfruit is a large tree grown for its fruit (technically an infructescence, as the breadfruit is a syncarp made up of many small fruitlets fused together) (fi gure 10.1). Many cultivars have no seeds, just tiny aborted ovules (these will be called seedless cultivars), whereas others may have few to many seeds. Breadfruit typically is harvested when it is slightly immature and still fi rm, and seedless cultivars are prepared in much the same way as potatoes: baked, boiled, steamed, roasted, or fried. Ripe fruits are sweet and used in desserts. In seeded cultivars, seeds are chestnut-like in both size and taste and are boiled or roasted. Although breadfruit yields vary between individual trees and cultivars, productivity typically is quite high. A commonly cited fi gure for seedless