If consumers are asked to describe the durian fruit, many would likely use generic terms such as round green husk, a lot of thorns, yellow flesh, etc.
But at the cultivation level, these simple terms are too generic to be meaningful to farmers.
Imagine asking a colleague in the evening “So how does the musang kings look today?”. And he replies with “They look green with a lot of thorns”.
This response might seem like satire to anyone.
While being able to describe durians in a more detailed manner might not provide much benefits to consumers, meticulous descriptions can help growers to not just monitor the development of their fruits and trees, but also take appropriate action to resolve issues before they become real problems.
For instance, a fruit growing in an unfamiliar shape alien to the particular cultivar can be a sign of an ill tree.
At the cultivation level, the descriptors of durian fruits can be listed as:
- Shape
- Top
- Bottom
- Husk colour
- Thorn shape
- Thorn density
- Thorn length
We can elaborate these features.
Shape
The shape of the whole fruit is generally classified into round, oval and pyriform.
However, the more scientific agricultural community would list the shapes of durians under:
- Oblate
- Globose
- Oval
- Oblong
- Elliptic
- Obovoid
- Ovoid
Top shape
The form description of top apex of the fruit can be categorized as concave, convex or pointed.
The pro-level descriptors are:
- Depressed
- Necked
- Convec
- Truncate
- Concave
- Acute
Bottom shape
The bottom of the fruit can bare trademark features as can be observed in the case of musang king.
These features can be said to be protruding, depressed or convex.
The academic community can classify them as:
- Pointed
- Convex
- Mammiform
- Truncate
- Depressed
Husk colour
While most consumers would generally only see durians as green in colour, cultivators can get more detailed into the rind colour.
But the 4 general shades are green, yellow-green, brownish-green and faded green.
The researchers at Bioversity has helped write a standard and list the colours of durians as:
- Green
- Brownish-green
- Yellow-green
- Greenish-yellow
- Yellow
- Orange-yellow
- Orange
- Pink
- Red
So far we have discussed the physical attributes of the overall shape of the durian husk as a whole.
As we all know, durian fruits are most recognized by their thorns.
And there are 3 main identifiable features of the spikes.
Thorn shape
It really takes an eye for detail to differentiate between durians based on their thorns.
Often times, even experts will not be able to get it right 100% of the time by sole based on thorns.
But it is usually a combination of different aspects from the above that helps one to quickly identify durian cultivars.
Generally speaking, the thorns are mostly described as big or small, and concave or convex.
But as we break it down into a more diligent manner, we can describe them with attributes such as:
- Hooked
- Convex
- Pointed-convex
- Concave
- Pointed-concave
- Conical
- Pyramidal
Take note that it is totally possible for the spikes of a durian to exhibit the qualities of more than one attribute.
Thorn density
Thorn density basically means how clustered or roughly how many thorns are there per square inch.
This can be said to be either sparse, intermediate or dense.
Thorn length
Some durians have short thorns and others have long ones.
It is generally classified that those less than 1cm in length is short, 1m to 1.5cm is medium, and above 1.5cm is long.
With the above information, you should be able to take your ability to identify durian cultivars to the next level.