Salak or snake fruit grows in the high ranges of Kerala

Kodencherry: The people of the quaint village in Nellipoyil are curious to see the plump salak fruits that grow in localite Suresh’s front yard. The exotic fruit, which is also known as snake fruit, has its origins in the rain forests of Indonesia.

Suresh says that it is for the first time that the fruit has grown and ripened in the high ranges of Kerala. It was seven years ago that Suresh purchased a sapling from a nursery and planted on his yard. As the salak fruit’s outer skin looks like the scales of snake, it is widely known as snake fruit.

The fruit is excellent for the health of brain. So, in many countries it is known as memory fruit. Suresh had grown the fruits through artificial pollination by sprinkling the pollen from the male plant on the flowers of the female plants.

Suresh, who is a designer, does painting jobs too. He owns forty cents of land where he grows unique fruits like acai berries, kepel fruit, three varieties of abiu fruit like langston, longan and apple cherry, West Indies cherries, seedless water apples, asafoetida, tamarind, dragon fruits in two different colours, achachairu fruit, baraba fruit, milk fruit, durian, chempedak, bananas, Suriname cherries and various kinds of lemons.