Black Gold

'Black Gold' was selected in Queensland, Australia, and became one of the anchor cultivars in the long-running jackfruit evaluation at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, which screened roughly 25 accessions for south Florida conditions. It emerged from that trial on the short list of cultivars UF/IFAS and Fairchild recommend for both commercial planting and home gardens. What sets it apart is the combination of a genuinely compact, dense canopy with a late ripening window that extends the jackfruit season into autumn after most other cultivars have finished. The flesh is on the soft end of the jackfruit spectrum rather than crunchy, which suits it to fresh eating, smoothies and desserts more than to the firm-arils-in-syrup style. It is now one of the most widely grafted jackfruits in the Florida nursery trade and is stocked by Sow Exotic and other specialist growers.