Photo: MKwek, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Artocarpus altilis
Breadfruit (lam veritab)
- Also called Breadfruit
- Haitian Creole Lam veritab, veritab
- French Arbre à pain
Evergreen tree, 12-20 m
What it is
Breadfruit is a large tree in the fig and mulberry family. Its leaves are huge, glossy and deeply cut into finger-like lobes, and all parts of the tree ooze a white, sticky latex when cut. Its round or oval green fruits, often 1 to 4 kg, have a bumpy skin and starchy flesh. It comes from New Guinea and the Pacific islands and was brought to the Caribbean in the late 1700s.
What it's used for
- Its fruit is boiled, roasted or fried and eaten like potato or bread, and in Haiti veritab is an everyday food.
- A grown tree can bear large crops every year for decades.
- Its light wood is used for building and its sticky latex was used to caulk boats.
- Its big canopy gives shade and drops leaves that build up the soil.
Where we plant it
Our partners plant the mix of native species that suits each site and season, so a gift plants trees in the project rather than this one species. Artocarpus altilis is one of the species planted there.
More trees planted in Pollinator Agroforestry in Haiti
Pigeon pea (pwa kongo)Cajanus cajan
Yellow mombin (monben)Spondias mombin
Candelabra spurgeEuphorbia lactea
Moringa (benzolive)Moringa oleifera
Red mombin (siwèl)Spondias purpurea
Cassava (manyòk)Manihot esculenta
Mesquite or bayahondeProsopis juliflora
Spanish cedar (sèd)Cedrela odorata
See all 16 species in Pollinator Agroforestry in Haiti
Other species we plant
Mangrove Restoration in Kenya
4 species
Rebuilding Oregon's Forests
5 species
Reforestation in Tamil Nadu, India
37 species
LimeberryBaheda or Beleric myrobalanBig-fruited jamunSouth Indian suregadaJamun, Naval or Black plumDevil pepper or Wild snakerootWoody-fruited PterospermumCork-leaved bayurVengai, Vijaysar or Indian kinoCeylon boxwoodCorky debbar treePanakka treeWinged naringi, a wild citrusPamburus, a wild citrus relativeElumbotti, the bone-knit shrubClimbing olaxBakul, Magizham or Spanish cherryKaya or Ironwood treeNotched-leaf spike thornPalai, Palu or KhirniPointed-leaf jasmineIndian screw tree or ValampuriGrewia, a dry-country shrubGrewia, a dry-forest shrubOrangeberry or KonjiGarlic fruit or Bitter garciniaHairy fig or PeyattiWild karanda or ConkerberryCansjera, a native forest climberShining bush-violetVagai or Siris treeUsilai or Krishna sirisChokkalai or Droopy leafWild lime or Kattu elumichaiKorinti, a custard-apple relativeIndian allophylus or TitberryLolly berry or Saptarangi
