If you get excited by exotic fruits, here’s one that adds a little ‘creep factor’ to the experience. Best of all, you can even grow it in your own garden in the UK and use it as a party trick to freak your friends!
It’s been enjoyed for centuries by the Lepcha, the indigenous people of Sikkim, but outside its natural range the dead man’s finger is little known for its edible fruits. A member of the chocolate vine family (Lardizabalaceae), Decaisnea insignis is a shrub native to China, Nepal, northeast India (Sikkim), Bhutan, and Myanmar. At home in Asia it grows at altitudes between 900 to 3600 metres above sea level which is why it is frost-hardy in the UK where it is sometimes grown as an ornamental.
The pods are divided up finger-shaped on the branch. One reason why these blue cucumbers are rarely available in German-speaking countries is because the taste of the fruit changes rapidly when stored at varying temperatures. Their intriguing taste can quickly turn into a very unpleasant one. Snake Fruit (Salak) is also known to do the same.
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