Flacourtia jangomas, Indian coffee plum, is a lowland and mountain rain forest tree in the Salicaceae or Willow Family. It is widely cultivated in Southeast and East Asia and has escaped cultivation in a number of places. Its wild origin is unknown but is speculated to be tropical Asia, most perhaps India. This tree is very common in Southern India and carries immense culinary and medical significance, especially in Kerala where it is commonly known as lubica or lovlolika. Fruits are eaten both raw and cooked as a jam, and the bark is sometimes used medicinally. It is sometimes harvested for its lumber. The plant is considered one of the primary host plants of the Queensland fruit fly.
Flacourtia jangomas is a small, deciduous shrub or tree that grows to a height of 6-10m. Trunk and branches are commonly thornless in old trees but densely beset with simple or branched, blunt woody thorns when younger. The bark is light-brown to copper-red with a flaky texture and the leaves are light green and narrow ovate in shape. It produces small white to whitish green fragrant flowers. The relatively juicy fruits are rounded pink to dark red and about an inch wide.
Flacourtia jangomas fruits are widely eaten around South Asia, both raw and cooked. They are noted for their mild sour and tangy taste. The fruits are pickled, salt-dried, or cooked in Indian curries. They can also be blended into juices or made into jams and marmalades which are immensely popular in Southern India. Commercially produced Coffee plum jams and pickles are exported across the world by various companies, mainly from Kerala.
FERTILIZING
Luvika plants grown as a protective hedge are hardly manured or fertilized. Manuring, however, used as 10-15 kg well-rotten farmyard manure or compost/plant and should be applied before flowering.
HARVESTING YOUR LUVIKA TREE
Luvika fruits mature 100-110 days after fruit set. At this stage, fruits develop their natural color. Fruits ripen after this stage, taking about 120 days (after fruit set) when they become soft and attain dark purple/maroon/ red color. Luvika requires 2-3 pickings to harvest the entire crop. On average, a plant provides 3-5 kg fruits.
