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The ackee, also known as achee, ackee apple or akee (''Blighia sapida'') is a member of the Sapindaceae (soapberry family), as are the lychee and the longan. It is native to tropical West Africa in Cameroon, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The scientific name honours Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and introduced it to science. The common name is derived from the West African Akan ''akye fufo''. The fruit was imported to Jamaica from West Africa (probably on a slave ship) before 1778. Since then it has become a major feature of various Caribbean cuisines, and is also cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas elsewhere around the world. == Botany == Ackee is an evergreen tree that grows about 10 metres tall, with a short trunk and a dense crown. The leaves are paripinnately compound, long, with 6–10 elliptical to obovate-oblong leathery leaflets. Each leaflet is long and wide. The inflorescences are fragrant, up to 20 cm long, with unisexual flowers that bloom during warm months. Each flower has five greenish-white petals The fruit is pear-shaped. When it ripens, it turns from green to a bright red to yellow-orange, and splits open to reveal three large, shiny black seeds, each partly surrounded by soft, creamy or spongy, white to yellow flesh—the aril.〔 The fruit typically weighs .〔 File:2013.11-411-172 Akee,leaves(e-s) Bobo-Dioulasso,BF thu14nov2013-1025h.jpg|Leaves, upper and lower surface. Image:Ackee Flower 001.JPG|Inflorescence. File:Akee.jpg|Fruit as it splits upon ripening. File:2013.11-411-155 Akee,fruit(e-s),seed&aril Bobo-Dioulasso,BF sun10nov2013-1740h.jpg|Showing ripe fruit and seeds with their arils. File:2013.11-411-169 Akee,fruit(part),seed&aril(i-s) Bobo-Dioulasso,BF thu14nov2013-0953h.jpg|Part of ripe fruit, two seeds with their arils still attached . File:2013.11-411-169 Akee,seed&aril(whole,LS) Bobo-Dioulasso,BF thu14nov2013-0953h.jpg|Ripe seeds with their arils (dorsal view and in longitudinal section). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ackee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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