The Black Plum
The summers and the monsoons in India are significant for a variety of fruits such as watermelon,mango,papaya,guava,plum,grapes,pineapple and litchi.The markets are flooded with these fruits.One important fruit during this season is the Black Plum,also called the Malabar plum or the Java plum.It is often incorrectly called as "BlackBerry ",which is a different fruit altogether. Scientifically, the Black Plum is called Syzygium cumin.It is called 'Jamun' in Hindi and 'Jamu' in Assamese.The Black Plum is a large evergreen tree which is much branched and grows from 5 to 20 meters tall having trunk diameter of 60 to 90 cm.Fruits are green which turns to pale greenish to pink to deep purplish to black when ripe.The fruits are small and oval in shape.The fruit has a combination of sweet mildly sour and astringent flavor and when eaten tends to color the tongue purple.The Black Plum tree grows naturally in India,Himalayas,Malaysia,Sri Lanka and Australia. I