Friday, 9 April 2010

Durian 榴槤



There are about 30 known species of Durio. So far 9 species have been identified to produce edible fruits : D. zibethinus, D. dulcis, D. grandiflorus, D. graveolens, D. kutenensis, D. lowianus, D. macrantha, D. oxleyanus, D. testudinarum.

However, there are many species for which the fruit has never been collected or properly described and it is possible that other species with edible fruit exist.




Durio oxleyanus
Husk green. Spine slender & long. Flesh is yellow.



Durio kutejunsis
Husk yellow. Spine short. Flesh yellow, sticky, less sweet.


Durio zibethinus
Husk yellowish to green. Spine short. Flesh is white to yellow, sweet.

The name durian comes from the Malay word duri ( literally means thorn ), with a suffix -an for building a noun in Malay.
zibethinus refers to the Indian civet, Viverra zibetha.
There is disagreement regarding whether this name, refers to civets being so fond of the durian that the fruit was used as bait to entrap them, or to the durian smelling like the civet.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

榴梿?? 榴莲??

以上两个名词同译为一种热带水果. 第一个词位繁体汉字,第二个词为简体汉字.

记得小时候老师说,中华文化渊源流长, 博大精深; 中华文字的组成更是由基本符号再加上其特指定意而成, 所以中文可以说是字汇最多,词汇最丰富发达的文字, 我举手赞成!!

榴梿 - 就字面上可意为一种乔木植物, 并有着令人"流连忘返" 的魔力.

榴莲 - 就字面上你又会怎么译呢? 我好混淆....

Ongzi said...

liulian 榴莲(原文为马来文Durian)(见上文),原产于东印度和马来西亚,后传入菲律宾、斯里兰卡、泰国、越南和缅甸等国。

中文名“榴莲”并非源于“流连忘返”,此说纯属牵强附会。“榴莲”是外来词汇(马来文:Durian),如同“咖啡”一般是音译词。无需为之费神。