Durio zibethinus is the durian most commonly sold throughout Southeast Asia. This is the durian that is banned in hotels and on subways, and that has grounded planes with its infamous odor. It is the only durian species widely cultivated and purposefully bred. It has adapted to different climates and rain patterns, and changed to fit the cultural desires of people all over Southeast Asia. This durian, above all others, is the fascinating King of Fruit.
Most of the posts on this website are about this species. This is the general overview. It’s a really long post. So all you scarily obsessed durian nerds out there and wannabe durian hunters, this is for you.
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| Hor Lor. Penang Malaysia |
Description
Durio zibethinus has the most variety in terms of color, odor, flavor, and consistency of any of the durian species. It seems almost unfair that such diversity should be lumped into a single species. From very sweet to very bitter, overpoweringly pungent to insipidly mild, Durio zibethinus manages to encompass many extremes. It’s charm is in its contradictions.
Odor is its claim to fame. Overripe, rotten or old durians can smell as pungently foul as a high school boy’s gym locker after an American football game, Ax included. But within that stench are highlights of the best French patisserie mixed with caramel cake and vanilla perfume. As a durian lover, I very rarely smell anything but my favorite scent of all: durian.
On the outside, Durio zibethinus can range from a brilliant green to a deep brown. It can be tan, or gold, even slightly purplish. The spikes can be large and blocky, short and nubby, or painfully sharp and thin.
The size ranges from only a half kilogram (1 lb) to more than 10 kilos (22 lb). In general, the largest durians are found in Thailand, although the very largest I’ve ever seen was a 14 kilo (30 lb) whopper in Davao City, Philippines.
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| I forget. But it was yums. |
That’s a lot of variation already, but the interior holds the greatest range of surprises. This is one of the reasons people love durian – unless you are familiar with the cultivar, opening a durian is like gambling.
Inside, a durio zibethinus can be pearly white or tinged with grey, brilliant yellow or deep gold bordering on orange or pink. It can be mottled, or monochromatic, smooth or wrinkly. The flesh can be so thin it’s barely more than tasty skin wrapped around the seed, or overwhelmingly plump and heavy. In fact, the edible portion of durio zibethinus ranges from only 5% for kampung or village durians to 40% for two varieties in the Philippines. That’s a fatty durian.
In flavor, the variation only grows wider. From as sweet as frosting to bitter as chocolate, earthy like coffee or fruity as a mango, durian has it all. Is it any wonder we dedicated a year of our lives to eating it?
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| Johor Bahru, Malaysia |
Distribution and Season
Durio zibethinus is cultivated all over Southeast Asia within 15 degrees latitude of the equator. It can be found in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and Hainan island in China.
In the 20th century it has migrated to Australia, South America, Africa, and the Hawaiian Islands, although no large scale farms have been successful established.
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| Village durian, Sri Lanka |
Local Names
Cambodia: Thu-réén
Chinese: Liu Lian, Lau Lin
Chinese: Liu Lian, Lau Lin
Laos: Thourièn
Vietnam: Sâù riêng
Thailand: Thurian, Rian
Philippines: Dulian (Bagobo, Lanao, Maguindanao), Duyen (Sulu Archipelago), Duryen; (Tagalog), Duryan (Iloko)
Indonesia: Duren, (Java, Bali and Lombok), Duriang (Sulawesi), Tarutung (Batak, Sumatra), Dereyan (Aceh, Sumatra)
Myanmar: Du-yin
Vietnam: Sâù riêng
Thailand: Thurian, Rian
Philippines: Dulian (Bagobo, Lanao, Maguindanao), Duyen (Sulu Archipelago), Duryen; (Tagalog), Duryan (Iloko)
Indonesia: Duren, (Java, Bali and Lombok), Duriang (Sulawesi), Tarutung (Batak, Sumatra), Dereyan (Aceh, Sumatra)
Myanmar: Du-yin
Malaysia: Durian
Borneo: Dian, Durian Puteh
Borneo: Dian, Durian Puteh
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| Ri6, Vietnam |
Scientific Name: Durio Zibethinus Murray
Durio zibethinus is so widely known and has been so often written about that there are already a lot of stories about how it was named floating around the internet. I can promise that at least half of these are at least half wrong.
It’s often said that Durio zibethinus is named after the scientific name for the civet cat, Viverra zibetha. Just how the two relate depends on the the story teller.
The other piece of erroneous information floating around is that Durio zibethinus was named by some guy called Murray. Even Kosterman, in his literary staple the “Genus Durio Adans.” attributes the naming of the species to Murray. But he’s totally wrong too. Here’s why.
The first European to discover durian was an Italian merchant who
visited Sumatra in 1421 looking for aromatic spices and incense. He found durian, but what he thought of its aroma is not recorded.
Niccolo de Conti didn’t write anything about his journeys, and no one
would know anything about him if he hadn’t gotten in trouble with the
Pope. His punishment was to recount his adventures to the Papal
secretary.
visited Sumatra in 1421 looking for aromatic spices and incense. He found durian, but what he thought of its aroma is not recorded.
Niccolo de Conti didn’t write anything about his journeys, and no one
would know anything about him if he hadn’t gotten in trouble with the
Pope. His punishment was to recount his adventures to the Papal
secretary.
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| Philippines Native |
This sentence was Europe’s first introduction to the durian: “Here is a greene fruite named Duriano,
of the bignesse of Cucumbers. And there be some of them lyke long
Orengies or Lemans, of diverse savours and taste, as like butter, lyke
milke, and like curdes.” (On the Vicissitudes of Fortune).
That actually doesn’t have anything to do with how Durio zibethinus got it’s name. I just thought it was interesting.
The story of Durio zibethinus begins with a man with really bad luck, as most of these durian stories seem to do (does this seem like a weird coincidence to anyone else?). German-born Georg Eberhard Rumf was hired in 1657 to study the plants of the Western Indonesia for the Dutch East Indies Company. He’s often known by the Latin name Rumphius.
He spent the next 30 years of his life documenting the plants (including durian) and their traditional uses in a 6 volume handwritten and illustrated manuscript that was lost twice: once to fire, and once sunk by pirates. During the process, he went blind from glaucoma and lost his wife and child in an earthquake. His masterpiece, Herbarium Amboinense, finally arrived in the Netherlands in 1696, but the Dutch East Indies Company feared it had too much information in it and refused to publish it. Rumf died without seeing his life’s work published.
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| Third times the charm for Rumphius. 1741. |
In 1741Herbarium Amboinense was finally published and made it into the hands of Carl Linnaeus just in time to influence his new organizational model for naming plants. Linneaus never traveled to Southeast Asia or tasted a durian. He based his taxonomical placement of durian on the four pages Rumf wrote about durian. The Murray guy was his editor, Johann Andreas. Since Linnaeus was the author, technically the fruit is “Durio zibethinus Linn.” Not Murr.
I think it would have only been fair if Linnaeus named the durian for Rumf, after the insane effort Rumf went to get his manuscript to Europe. Instead, Linnaeus named it after the civet cat.
That much is true. But here’s a fun fact: Linnaeus named the civet cat Viverra zibetha in 1758, more than 10 years after he published Durio zibethinus. Figure that one out.
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| The first mention of Durio zibethinus in Systema Vegetabilium, 1747 |
Unlike a lot of plant names, which are weird
latinizations of people names or Latin adjectives like “smelly,”
Linnaeus didn’t make up “zibetha.” Civet cats are found throughout Africa,
and they were no stranger to the Romans, who used their odoriferous secretions to make perfume. Zibetha is the word Rumf uses to talk about the civet cat.
There are three stories about what Rumf said about durians and civet cats. One claims that Rumf described native peoples using durian to capture the cats, which fetched a high price thanks to how badly perfume was needed to cover up bad hygiene.
Other sources claim Rumf noticed the cats really liked to eat durian. It may be true that the cats eat durian, but I don’t know that this is what convinced Linnaeus to name a fruit after them.
Although I can’t read Latin myself, a combination of the search function and google translate helped me find the one paragraph related to durian and civet cats in Rumphius’s work. All I can make out is something about urine, a strong smell, and how durian gives you bad breath. So I’m going with the the “durian smells like civet cat musk” theory. I’ve also never smelled a civet cat, so if anyone can prove me wrong, please do!
To make it easier, I’ve linked the PDF of Herbarium Amboinense below. All references to durian and the civet cat are on page 102 of Volume 1.
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| Red Prawn, Penang Malaysia |
Growing Durio Zibethinus
There is so much research about growing Durio zibethinus that I could write a whole book on the topic, and several other people already have. So here’s the quickie version for Durio zibethinus. I’ll be writing more on this topic in later posts.
The tree is one of the tallest of the durian species, growing up to 60 meters in height. They prefer the lowlands, but do well up to 800 meters in altitude. This species does not tolerate flooding and is highly susceptible to fungi and other diseases, such as Phytophthora palmivora. For this reason, there is a lot of research looking at using other durian species as rootstock.
References
Back to A Complete List of Durian Species
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Marlie says
Murr) trees by spraying goat urine was enhanced with combined application of fertilizers supplying boron and calcium. An experiment evaluating the efficacy of fermented goat urine combined with fertilizers supplying boron (20.5%) and calcium (34%) to improve productivity and postharvest quality of durian was conducted for two fruiting seasons. An 8-year-old durian trees in a farmer?s field at Bukidnon Province in Mindanao, Philippines were allowed to bear fruits for two seasons from March 2009 to June 2010. Foliar application of boron (20.5%) and fermented goat urine in combination with calcium (34%) significantly increased the number of fruits harvested per tree thus obtained the highest total yield and return of investment (ROI) per hectare during the two fruiting periods. Moreover, a significantly noticeable increased in percent edible portion was observed in fruits harvested from trees treated with boron (20.5%) applied singly or together with calcium (34%) and this was significantly enhanced with fermented goat urine application. Fruits from boron (20.5%) and fermented goat urine treatments have significantly high total soluble solids (TSS) with internal quality of fruits such as sweetness, aril flavor and overall quality increased compared to other treatments as evaluated by a taste panel.
Kresna says
Hi,
To me and many others, the civet cat’s odour is more like pandan leaf (pandanus). In my parent’s house sometime we smell pandan in the evening for a minute or so. We know that there is a civet on the roof. Occasionally, we can see the black shape/shadow of a cat-like with long tail.
In Bahasa Indonesia, it is called musang 😉
michael rickett says
Hello, I’ll be starting my 30 acre tree farm 800 foot elevation above Hilo in Hawaii. 200 durian are on my exhaustive list. Looking forward to a relationship with you all.
[email protected] says
Awesome!!