Re: The Epidendrosaurus and aye-aye

["Dino Rampage" <dino_rampage@hotmail.com>]

> Having sampled the fruit at the Royal Botanic Gardens here in Melbourne,
> I can assure you they don't taste as bad as they smell. Which is just > as
> well, since they smell quite a bit like dog droppings. I believe there
> is also a large fruit from Borneo that smells foul, but is said to be
> quite a delicacy (even Orangutans can't get enough of them).
>
> I really have to stop eating things I just find lying on the ground...
> :)

That would be the durian, Zibetha durio, it's a very, very popular fruit 
here in Southeast Asia, and we people here call it "The King Of Fruits". The 
tree is grown in many plantations of Thailand, Malysia & Indonesia, and once 
the fruit ripen they fall to the ground, where they're collected. Basically 
it's a huge round green fruit about the size of your head, and it's covered 
in thorns, like a plant version of a hedgehog. (Which is why many durian 
orchards have nets installed about 3 metres off the ground, to prevent 
falling durians from dropping on people's heads!) Once you split open the 
thick shell though, you find dozens of seeds, each enclosed in its own 
package of smooth, creamy, yellow flesh. Yum!

Eating it is an acquired taste though, but when you sink your teeth into the 
smooth, creamy flesh, you just can't stop! Well, at least most of us in 
Southeast Asia don't really mind the smell; in fact many consider it 
heavenly : )

Apparently many non-human mammals share our taste for durians... they're 
among the favourite food of orang-utans, elephants, & monkeys. There are 
cases of even tigers eating the fruit.

You should try the stuff some day!



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