Durian

The durian is the fruit of trees in the genus Durio, with 30 known species, at least nine of which bear edible fruit. Only one species, Durio zibethinus, is traded internationally; it is native to Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula. By 2021, Thailand had over 300 named varieties of this species, and Malaysia had over 200. Other edible species are sold only locally.

Often called the "king of fruits," the durian is notable for its large size, strong smell, and spiky rind. The fruit can reach 30 cm in length and 15 cm in diameter, typically weighing 1 to 3 kg. Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the husk from green to brown, and the flesh from pale yellow to red, depending on the species. The flesh has a complex, savory flavor and a creamy, pudding-like texture.

Opinions on its aroma are sharply divided: some find it pleasantly sweet, while many others find it overpowering and unpleasant. The smell can linger for days, leading hotels and public transport in places like Singapore and Bangkok to ban the fruit. The flesh is eaten at various stages of ripeness and used in both sweet desserts and savory dishes across Southeast Asia. The seeds are edible when cooked.

Etymology

The word "durian" comes from the Malay word for thorn, combined with a suffix. The Oxford English Dictionary first records the word in a 1588 translation of a work by Juan González de Mendoza. Historical spellings include durion, duryoen, duroyen, durean, and dorian. The species name zibethinus comes from the Italian word for civet, as the fruit's strong odor reminded people of that animal.

Description

Durian trees are large, reaching 25 to 50 m in height depending on the species. Their leaves are evergreen, elliptic to oblong, and 10 to 18 cm long. Flowers grow in clusters of three to thirty on large branches and directly on the trunk; each flower has a calyx and five (rarely four or six) petals. Trees have one or two flowering and fruiting periods per year, depending on species, cultivar, and location.

A typical tree bears fruit after four or five years. The fruit hangs from any branch and matures about three months after pollination. Among the 30 Durio species, eight produce edible fruit: D. zibethinus, D. dulcis, D. graveolens, D. kutejensis, D. lowianus, D. macrantha, D. oxleyanus, and D. testudinarius.

Only D. zibethinus is grown commercially on a large scale outside its native region. Because it is open-pollinated, it shows wide variation in fruit color, odor, flesh and seed size, and tree phenology. Whether Linnaeus named it after the Indian civet (Viverra zibetha) because the fruit was used as bait to trap civets, or because the fruit smells like the civet, is debated.

Durian flowers are large, feathery, and rich in nectar, with a heavy, sour, buttery smell—traits typical of flowers pollinated by bats that eat nectar and pollen. Bats such as the cave nectar bat, the lesser short-nosed fruit bat, and the large flying fox pollinate durians. Two species, D. grandiflorus and D. oblongus, are pollinated by spiderhunter birds; D. kutejensis is pollinated by giant honey bees, birds, and bats. Some scientists think the development of larger flowers and monothecate anthers in the clade containing Durio, Boschia, and Cullenia reflects a shift from beetle pollination to vertebrate pollination.

Origin and history

The durian likely originated in Borneo and Sumatra, with wild trees in the Malay Peninsula and orchards from India to New Guinea. Four hundred years ago, it was traded across present-day Myanmar and actively cultivated, especially in Thailand and South Vietnam. The earliest European mention is from Niccolò de' Conti, who traveled to Southeast Asia in the 15th century. He described a green fruit the size of a watermelon, with five orange-like segments inside that tasted like thick butter.

Portuguese physician Garcia de Orta wrote about durians in 1563. In 1741, German botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius published Herbarium Amboinense, the most detailed account of durians for over a century. The genus Durio has a complex taxonomy, with many species added and removed since Rumphius created it. Early taxonomists sometimes confused durian with soursop (Annona muricata), which also has thorny green fruit; the Malay name for soursop is durian Belanda.