🥕 Breadfruit
Artocarpus altilis
vegetables perennial evergreen tree
☀️ Sun
full sun
💧 Water
moderate to high, consistent rainfall
🗺️ Zones
10, 12
🪴 Soil Type
well-draining, fertile, deep
🧪 Soil pH
6.0-7.5
💧 Drainage
Well-drained
📏 Spacing
30-40 ft apart (large tree)
📅 Days to Maturity
3-5 years (from root sucker); 5-7 years from seed
🍴 Edible Parts
🍽️ ["Roasted🍽️ baked🍽️ fried as chips🍽️ curries🍽️ traditionally cooked in earth ovens (umu)"]
🤝 Companions (7)
Taro thrives in the moist, shaded understory beneath breadfruit's broad canopy, creating a productive multi-story tropical food forest.
Ginger grows well in breadfruit's dappled shade, benefiting from the wind protection and humid microclimate the large tree creates.
Turmeric flourishes in the filtered light under breadfruit, which provides the partial shade and moisture retention turmeric needs for optimal rhizome development.
🤝 sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes serve as living groundcover beneath breadfruit, suppressing weeds and retaining soil moisture while making use of space the tree doesn't occupy.
🤝 cassava
Cassava grows well as an understory crop beneath breadfruit's high canopy — their root systems occupy different soil depths, minimizing competition.
Cacao thrives in breadfruit's shade — this classic agroforestry pairing mimics natural rainforest layering, with breadfruit as the upper canopy and cacao below.
Coffee grows beautifully in breadfruit's partial shade; the tree canopy moderates temperature and humidity, creating ideal coffee-growing conditions.
⚠️ Keep Apart (1)
⚠️ plants requiring full sun beneath mature canopy
Growth inhibition or competition
💊 Medicinal Uses
Contains phenolic compounds (flavonoids, stilbenes) with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Rich in fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. Traditional Pacific Island medicine for hypertension, digestive disorders, and skin infections. Leaf tea used for diabetes and high blood pressure. Latex used traditionally for wound healing and skin ailments.
📝 Notes
Large tropical tree producing starchy fruit. Multi-story agroforestry staple throughout Pacific and Caribbean. Understory crops thrive in its dappled shade. Deep-rooted, allowing shallow-rooted crops below.