Jeremy Maddux’s Reviews > The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure > Status Update

'We arrive at his Fifth Avenue apartment and present him with the mangosteens, dragon fruits, sapodillas, dukus and longans. He’s appreciative, but also a tad concerned about how we got them over the border. Mangosteens and dragon fruit, he says, are illegal in the United States.'

Actually, they aren't. Maybe it varies on a state to state basis, but I've sampled both purchased at the grocery/retail level.

'Some plants are so cunning that they developed fruits that resemble insects—in order to be eaten by that insect’s predators. The fruits of Scorpiurus subvillosa look like centipedes. Other fruits imitate worms, spiders and even horned beetles. Birds carry them off, thinking they’ve snatched a squirmalicious snack.'

'In Scandinavia, battles that erupt between cloudberry harvesters in Finland, Sweden and Norway have caused foreign affairs ministries to set up departments for “cloudberry diplomacy.”'

'Both Israelis and Palestinians see the cactus pear as a symbol of their people. For Israelis, it represents their own prickly exteriors and sweet interiors. Palestinians see it as a symbol of patience, the patience it takes to peel and prepare the fruit, as well as the patience needed to cope with their ongoing challenges.'

'Within the tens of thousands of edible plant species, there are thousands of varieties—and new ones are continually evolving. Magic beans, sundrops, cannonballs, delicious monsters, zombi apples, gingerbread plums, swan egg pears, candle fruits, bastard cherries, bignays,bilimbis and biribas. As Hamlet might’ve said: “There are more fruits in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”'