Science

Diversity of Underutilized Tree Crops and Their Wild Relatives

The genus Artocarpus contains numerous economically important species (grown for timber and fruit) native to Southeast Asia. Two species, jackfruit and breadfruit, are cultivated throughout the tropics, but several others are important on more regional scales. Work in 2014 focused on analyzing data from collections made during previous fieldwork in Malaysia and India. Graduate student Theresa Melhem analyzed jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) diversity throughout the Western Ghats of India, its reported area of origin. Graduate student Maria Wang collected the closely related cempedak (A. integer) and its putative wild ancestor bangkong (A. integer var. sillvestris) throughout peninsular Malasyia. Graduate student Elliot Gardner collected terap (A. odoratissimus) and its putative wild ancestor A. odoratissimus ssp. barbatus in Borneo (Zerega, Melhem, Gardner, and Wang).