Artocarpus hirsutus - Wild Jackfruit

Wild Jack is an evergreen tree, up to 50 m high, bark 10-15 mm thick, surface dull grey-brown, smooth, warty, exfoliations thin, peeled surface red, fibrous; blaze creamy turning to pinkish-yellow; exudation milky white, sticky, branchlets hairy. Leaves are simple, alternate; stipules up to 4 cm long, lateral, densely tawny bristly; leaf-stalk 1-3 cm long, stout, hairy; blade 13-25 x 7.5-15 cm, broadly ovate, obovate or elliptic, base pointed, blunt or round, tip somewhat pointed or very shortly tapering, margin entire, wavy, leathery, hairless above, hairy-velvet-hairy beneath; lateral nerves 6-12 pairs, pinnate, prominent. Flowers are unisexual, minute, yellowish-green; male in leaf-axils, drooping, in narrowly cylindric spikes upto 15 cm long; tepals 2, united below; stamen 1; anther protruding, ovate, bracteoles chaffy; female flowers in in leaf-axils ovoid spikes; perianth tubular, confluent below with the receptacle; ovary superior, straight, ovule drooping; style protruding; stigma undivided. Fruit is a fleshy multiple fruit (like mulberry), 6-7.5 cm across, spherical or ovoid, echinate, yellow when ripe, the spines cylindric, straight, bristly, perforate at the tip for thread-like style; seeds 16-18 mm long, ovoid, white. Wild Jackfruit is endemic to the Western Ghats and are found in its evergreen forests.