Gardening with Tropical Fruit

The Indian Jujube

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

If you’re looking for a medium sized evergreen tree that fruits heavily, you might consider planting the Indian jujube (Zizythus mauritiana) which grows to about 35 to 40 feet at maturity. This tree is from the Asiatic tropics and has leaves which are two inches in length which are dark on top and lighter colored underneath.

Single or paired thorns are usually present at the leaf bases so be careful with trimming trees or harvesting the fruit. Numerous yellowish-white flowers are borne in clusters at the leaf axils and the large numbers of fruit are orange to brownish in color and may be rounded or oblong, about one inch in diameter.

A layer of edible pulp surrounding the hard central seed is highly prized and some have the flavor of a high quality apple. Fruit can be eaten fresh or if allowed to get over ripe often it is said that they somewhat resemble dates in flavor.

Trees are easily propagated by seed, however, it takes at least two years before they begin to produce fruit. Grafting and air layering of desired clones is very easy and they can also be rooted from cuttings under mist in some situations.

Trees are problem free and grow over a wide range of soil types. If they are close to the ocean, salt spray may burn leaf margins, but doesn’t keep the tree from fruiting. Trees generally are quite hardy in most typical winters, however, hard freezes can injure tender branches.

Growth rates of trees are about 3 to 5 feet a year when young and in some areas they are kept as large shrubs rather than allowed to grow into trees and they still produce adequate quantities of fruit.
A closer related jujube, the Chinese jujube, needs a little bit more cold weather than south Florida since it is a tree from temperate climates. Those produce higher quality fruit than the Indian jujube in most cases, but tend to root sucker and can be a nuisance with a lot of unwanted new trees.

Indian jujube can also be fruited as a container plant in a large container if you don’t want to put it outside into the landscape.