Tainan, Taiwan
June 3, 2011

Source: AVRDC Newsletter

Readers of Fresh may be familiar with “Buddha’s fingers citron” or “Buddha’s hand citron,” a member of the Citrus family (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis). It is a bright
yellow, fragrant fruit segmented into numerous, long, finger-like sections, with 5-20 sections per fruit. The fruit has a thick, aromatic peel and only a small amount of
white flesh, which is not juicy and does not contain seeds. The peel is usually candied.

Germplasm curator Tien-hor Wu of AVRDC’s Genetic Resources and Seed group recently discovered a “Buddha’s hand” eggplant in the Center’s eggplant collection.
He found it growing in the germplasm regeneration fields on plants of a Solanum melongena accession that originated in Thailand, from an eggplant variety called ‘MA-KHUEA-YAAO.’ “It’s a very rare find indeed!” Tienhor said. “It appears to be a somatic mutation with five stiles fused together, which were fecundated to produce the ‘Buddha’s hand’ fruit. Only one plant in the entire population produced this kind of fruit.’

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center holds the world’s second largest collection of eggplant germplasm, with 14% of the 21,032 accessions existing worldwide.

by Tien-hor Wu and Andreas Ebert
Genetic Resources and Seed

Website: https://avrdc.org/

Published: June 3, 2011