Moraceae
How to identify a breadfruit tree
Artocarpus altilis · also called sukun (Indonesian/Malay), fruta de pan (Spanish)
A starchy staple fruit cooked like a vegetable (roasted, fried, boiled) from mature-green to ripe. A food-security staple across the Pacific and Caribbean, bearing near year-round with variable flush peaks by cultivar and region.
Field marks
These features are typical of the genus Artocarpus, so they help confirm you are looking at the right group; the fruit and the details below separate the species.
- Cut leaves, twigs, bark and fruit bleed a white, sticky latex.
- Leaves are large and leathery. Breadfruit and breadnut have deeply lobed leaves; jackfruit and cempedak leaves on mature trees are usually entire, though young trees can show lobed leaves.
- Jackfruit and cempedak fruit grow from the trunk and main branches, not from the twig tips.
Check a photo
Photograph one whole, mature leaf from above, or a flower or fruit, and the identifier will return ranked matches. If breadfruit is the top result, the field marks above are your second opinion.
Leaves, flowers, fruit, or bark — closer and sharper identifies better. Your photo is identified and discarded, never stored.
Where and when you will find it
- Origin / cultivation history
- New Guinea / Malay Archipelago, spread through the Pacific by Polynesian voyagers
- USDA zones
- 10b-11
- Climate
- Tropical lowland, coastal, with wind and some salt tolerance; broad rainfall tolerance.
- Fruiting season
- Season not documented; check local sources
- How often grown
- Uncommon in cultivation
A tree growing well outside the climate above is more likely to be a look-alike.
Growing it: seedling or grafted?
A young tree with no fruit is harder to identify and easy to mislabel, so it helps to know how long it takes to reach fruiting age and how it is usually propagated.
- Years to first fruit
- 3-5 yrs from root cuttings or suckers
- Propagation
- Root cuttings and suckers predominate — most cultivated forms are seedless triploids; tissue culture increasingly used.
Relatives in the Moraceae family
Close relatives share many features, so these are the most likely mix-ups.
- JackfruitArtocarpus heterophyllus
- CempedakArtocarpus integer
- MarangArtocarpus odoratissimus
- BreadnutArtocarpus camansi
- LakoochaArtocarpus lakoocha
Map your breadfruit trees
CanopyTwin keeps every tree on a map with its species, cultivar, photos and history, and counts flowers and fruit from survey photos. It is built for orchards, nurseries and collectors of tropical and rare fruit.
More identification guides: free plant identifier · tropical fruit tree identifier · fruit tree identifier · all species guides