Anguilla

Coccoloba uvifera

The first fruit of the beach road, purple clusters ripening above white sand. Anguillians eat them warm from the bunch and sometimes ferment them; the trees themselves knit the dunes against the wind.

Ziziphus mauritiana

A small, apple-crisp fruit that turns from green to yellow-brown on scrubby trees in the bush. Children still hunt dunks in the dry season, the taste somewhere between apple and date.

Chrysobalanus icaco

Low coastal shrubs bearing fruit that looks iced in white or flushed purple. The flesh is dry-sweet and cottony, a dune crop that asks nothing of the thin limestone soil.

Melicoccus bijugatus

Bunches of green fruit sold from buckets, the pulp tart and slipping off a large seed. Genip season is a social season: you stand in the shade and talk with your mouth full.

Mangifera indica

Yard trees fruit in the wet months, dropping sweet, sometimes fibrous mangoes onto limestone yards. On an island this dry, a laden mango tree is a kind of wealth.

Carica papaya

Pawpaw grows easily behind the house, eaten ripe at breakfast or cooked green with saltfish. It is the reliable fruit of Anguilla's heat, producing when mango holds back.

Annona muricata

Spiny and heavy, pulled from trees in sheltered spots and blended into a cold, creamy juice. Leaves go into the bush tea that starts a holiday Monday.

Tamarindus indica

Shade trees with sour pods, boiled into a brown drink or sucked raw with a wince. Tamarind likes Anguilla's drought, and the islands have never been without it.

Annona squamosa

A segmented green fruit that yields sweet custard when it yields at all. It is an old yard tree here, fruiting in the heat for anyone patient enough to wait for softness.

Cocos nucifera

Palms line the beaches and the older villages, offering water from young nuts and milk for the kitchen. On an island with no rivers, the coconut is a well that grows in the sand.