Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum Dulcificum)- Sour to Sweet

Description

The miracle fruit is known for miraculously changing sour foods to sweet. It can be used for fun "flavor twisting" parties where people enjoy sour foods that taste sweet after eating a miracle fruit. It is also used by gourmet chefs, raw foodists, parents getting kids to eat vegetables, dieters and diabetics replacing sugary snacks, and is even being used by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Starting with a small seedling is an economical way to grow your own. However, miracle fruit plants are true tropicals and require a tropical environment (a home greenhouse or terrarium). Culture Location: Miracle fruit plants need a shade (full sun can burn the leaves), warmth and humidity above 80%. Miracle fruit plants will not tolerate cold weather or dry air. Growth Rate: Very Slow Foliage: The plant has attractive, deep green, elongated leaves with some wine stain which grow in a spire-like habit. Flowers: The small 1/4 inch white flowers are produced in flushes many months of the year. Fruit: The fruit is a small bright red, ellipsoid berry approximately 2 to 3 cm long and contains a single seed. Although not sweet itself, when a single fruit is eaten and the fleshy pulp allowed to coat the taste buds, an extraordinary effect occurs. One can eat a slice of lemon or lime without wincing. The marvelous aroma and inherent sweetness of the citrus remains but the sourness is almost completely covered. Strawberries taste like they are dipped in sugar. The effect can remain for 2 hours or more. Full plant in 4" pot.