PlantFiles: Velvet Apple, Mabolo
Diospyros blancoi

I think there was two kind of these fruits in Borneo. The one with reddish color tends to be more fragile to rot, but they have more flesh because the seeds are no more than 3 per seed. The other one is the yellow/orange one which always be found in good condition to be eaten,but the flesh are not much because the seeds are eating the space inside ^^

The taste is like mentega (butter) so people here called it buah mentega the butter fruit. The smells good and strong but not offensive as durian. Hide 2-3 mature fruit in my room, and my friend who sniff the smell ask me why did I store butter inside my room. :D

Weird fruit. That was my first thought when I got that fruit in my hands for the first time. I didn´t know what it was, but it looked so like a Kaki, but with that reddish fur covering the peel that I never saw before I was amazed.

The fruit also smells strong, sweet. I took one home (around the place where I work there are quite a few trees of this species), seduced by the color and smell, expecting it to be delicious... but I ate it and didn´t sense any remarkable taste. It smells better than it tastes. I had to avoid the peel as well, since the fur gets attached to everything.

I like the tree per se. The trunk looks strong, the branches are long and rigid, and the leaves are long, and seem to be generally horizontally oriented. The leaves also are dark green on the upper page and light green on the lower one (hence the name of the synonym "discolor")