More or less unknown (exotic) plants, trees and inhabitants of Reunion island

 

While walking in the nature our friends from here made us familar with some plants and trees we have never seen before.The "vacoa" (fr) palm = "screw pine" (en.) on the first picture is famous for its leaves, its fruits have sweet flauvor. On the second shot one may see the tree tomatos, which can be eaten raw or in jams.A common local, hiding very often in the green fences, is the here called "endormi" (third picture), a cameleon imported from Madagaskar.

 

Another unknown wild fruit we tried is the so called "pop.pop", from the passion fruit family. In the ball of green hair there is a orange ball hiding few fgrains covered by jelly. While walking between litchi and longani trees in the area od St Anne, we also passed by some ananas plants....

Another unsual fruit is the "margoze sauvage" (fr.) = "bitter gourd"(en.), on the two pics below. The wild version on the picture is not edible, when ripe the red seeds are distributed in the nature. The big version (as of 20-30cm and green) is used for salads and has a bit bitter flavour compared to cucumbers which it looks familar to..

A big thanks goes to Jojo for the great flora-fauna-tour!