Plant · P-666

Kokum

Garcinia indica

Kokum grows as a shaded understorey tree in the wet coastal forests of India's Western Ghats, and needs warm, humid, frost-free conditions to thrive. Its purple berries are eaten fresh or dried into a tangy souring agent for curries and cooling drinks, and the seeds yield a solid fat called kokum butter used in confectionery and skin care. Seedlings can turn out male, female, or both sexed on one tree, so growers plant several together or use grafted stock of known sex - and a tree can take decades to bear its first fruit from seed.