Strange, Alien Fruit

Filed in archive Morsels of Info on January 21, 2006

Oh, I definitely need help with this one. I've wracked my brains and bruised my fingers googling and I'm nowhere near an answer. WHAT could it be? What kind of fruit is this?

At the Book of Rai forum, Jacqui from Jamaica asked if any of us could identify a bunch of fruits she found in her mother's greenhouse. These are from a vine and feel like thick-skinned grapes, approximately 2 cm. in diametre and have 3-4 soft black seeds. The vine bears fruits in December. And curiosity of curiosities, the small fruits have leaves growing out of their flesh! Click on this link to see the larger composite image.

The bottom left picture shows a fruit on a spoon. It also shows a vertical cross-section. The picture on the right shows the leaves where they grow out of the skin.

Jacqui says:

"I notice that when I open the fruit close to the skin there seems to be a small fibre which seems to be where the leaf attaches to the interior of the fruit in the second photo I have tried to show this fibre."

Would you happen to know what we've been staring at these last few days? Well, online that is. If you haven't seen anything like it, perhaps you can help us speculate some more? :)

Update: Stef found out from someone at the GardenWeb forums that the fruit indeed comes from a climbing leafy cactus, the Barbados gooseberry - Pereskia aculeata Mill.