Malvaceae
How to identify a durian tree
Durio zibethinus · also called duren (Indonesian), sầu riêng (Vietnamese), ทุเรียน / thurian (Thai)
The 'king of fruits' — a massive spiny husk around custardy, notoriously pungent-smelling flesh. SE Asia's most commercially valuable tropical fruit crop, with an enormous range of named cultivars.
Field marks
These features are typical of the genus Durio, so they help confirm you are looking at the right group; the fruit and the details below separate the species.
- Leaves are simple, alternate and elliptic, glossy green above with a coppery or silvery scaly underside. Turning a leaf over is one of the quickest checks.
- Flowers and fruit are carried mostly on the older, thicker branches rather than at the twig tips.
- The fruit is large and covered in a thick husk of hard, sharp spines.
Check a photo
Photograph one whole, mature leaf from above, or a flower or fruit, and the identifier will return ranked matches. If durian 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
- Borneo and Sumatra
- USDA zones
- 10b-11
- Climate
- Tropical lowland, humid; wants 1500-3000mm well-distributed rainfall with a brief dry spell to trigger flowering; no frost tolerance.
- Fruiting season
- June, July and August (typical, Northern Hemisphere)
- How often grown
- Widely grown
Fruit is the most reliable way to confirm an identification, so June, July and August is the easiest window. Outside it, rely on the leaves and the overall habit. 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
- Seedling 8-15 yrs; grafted 4-6 yrs
- Propagation
- Grafting (cleft or veneer) onto vigorous seedling rootstock; seedlings are unreliable for named fruit quality.
Named cultivars
Our database lists these cultivars of durian. They cannot be told apart from a leaf photo.
Relatives in the Malvaceae family
Close relatives share many features, so these are the most likely mix-ups.
Map your durian 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