Breadfruit, which was a staple of many Polynesian diets, entered European legend in the late eighteenth century as the cargo carried by Captain Bligh of the Bounty when his crew mutinied off the island of Tofua. Bligh was carrying the breadfruit seedlings to the West Indies where, it was envisioned, they would provide an economical means of feeding African slaves. The first written description of the plant comes from Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who saw it in the Marquesas in 1595 and who described it as bearing a green fruit about the size of a boy’s head.
Breadfruit
