De opengesneden vrucht lijkt wel wat op een kiwi, maar dan veel kleiner.
Het vruchtvlees is groen, en de pitjes (zaden) liggen in de lengterichting rond een
centrale cylinder van vruchtvlees. Bij de kiwi (links) liggen de zaden echter in een
on-onderbroken cirkel, terwijl in de fuchsia-vrucht duidelijk vier hokjes te zien
zijn bij de dwars-doorsnede.
At the top and at the bottom of this page you see the edible fruits of Fuchsia boliviana, which in South-America still are
eaten and even sold in markets by the local population, as I read somewhere on the
WorldWideWeb.
Personally, I don't relish fuchsia-fruits, although several other hobbyists on the
Internet highly recommend them and even make jam out of them. But this is a question
of personal taste, of course. Someone else on the web (forgotten the address) agreed with me,
writing this:
"Fuchsia fruits are eaten raw. The fruit of all species and cultivars of this genus
is edible, though in many instances the fruit leaves an unpleasant
after-taste in the mouth."
I experience a kind of tingling on the tongue, caused by the seeds. Kiwi-fruits sometimes
give the same effect, especially when overripe.
The fruit's inside looks a lot like a kiwi's, but far smaller - it is green, and the
seeds lie around a central cylinder of fruit-flesh. In the cross-section of the fuchsia-fruit,
however, 4 separate compartments are visible with brown seeds (below), while kiwi-seeds are black and
lie in a circle (see picture above left).
