Oldest Breadfruit Tree in Galle Fort

Sri Lanka’s oldest introduced breadfruit tree (rata del) stands at Galle Fort’s Akersloot Bastion. Brought by colonial traders as cheap food, early 19th-century records highlight its culinary versatility, while local legend traces it to Dutch imports or the HMS Bounty.

Sri Lanka is home to two types of breadfruit trees: the endemic Wild Breadfruit (Artocarpus nobilis), known locally as bädi del, val del, or Sinhala del, and the introduced Breadfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), known as rata del. The latter, being a non-native species, became increasingly common in home gardens and is now generally referred to simply as breadfruit.

Research has traced the genetic lineage of the breadfruit trees found in Sri Lanka to varieties that originated in New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Breadfruit was introduced to the Caribbean during the late 1700s by French and English slave owners seeking an inexpensive source of food for enslaved people. It was introduced to Sri Lanka through human-managed trade voyages, most likely by Portuguese or Dutch ships, rather than through natural migration to the island. The colonial authorities may likewise have regarded the fruit as an inexpensive food source for labourers and soldiers.

Although the Portuguese may have been the first to introduce breadfruit to Sri Lanka, it was the Dutch and later the British who made greater efforts to propagate the tree throughout the country as a cheap alternative food crop.

Legends of the Introduction of Breadfruit

There are few legends concerning the introduction of breadfruit to Sri Lanka. The first holds that the Dutch introduced it from Batavia, present-day Jakarta, Indonesia, to provide food for the local population (Situge, 1997).

The second legend associates its introduction with the famous mutiny aboard the British ship H.M.S. Bounty (Situge, 1997).

On December 23, 1787, the H.M.S. Bounty sailed from Spithead, England, to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to Britain’s West Indian colonies as an inexpensive source of food for the enslaved population. On April 4, 1789, the ship departed from Tahiti carrying more than 1,000 breadfruit plants. During the return voyage, the crew mutinied under the leadership of an officer named Fletcher Christian. Captain Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 loyal crew members were set adrift in a 7-meter (23-foot) open boat (Clement, 1989).

Following the mutiny, all the breadfruit plants, together with the small barrels in which they had been planted, were thrown overboard. According to the legend, one of these plants eventually drifted into the harbour of Galle (Situge, 1997).

During the British occupation of the country, breadfruit was widely cultivated, particularly in the southern and western lowlands.

Early Historical References

In 1803, Robert Percival wrote about breadfruit in his chapter on vegetables of the island:

“Another species, which is usually called the bread-fruit tree, in the appearance of the fruit, is quite similar to the jacka, only that it is much smaller. The leaves of this tree are large and of a dark green colour. The fruit is dressed in a variety of different ways, and no less than fifieen different dishes are prepared from it. When sliced and roasted, it is eaten in place of bread ; and is often scraped into flour by the natives, and then baked into cakes. These fruits are invaluable preservatives against famine, of which neither their own indolence, the terrors of their enemies, nor the tyranny of their governors, are able to deprive the Ceylonese.”

In 1854, Samuel White Baker described the widespread presence of breadfruit trees in the southeastern part of Ceylon:

“The whole of this country (the southeastern part of Ceylon) is almost uninhabited, and accordingly undisturbed. Yalle is the nearest town of importance, from which a good road, lined on either side with cocoa-nut and breadfruit trees, extends as far as Tangalle, fifty miles.“

The Oldest Breadfruit Tree in Galle

The oldest breadfruit tree, which some consider to be the first breadfruit tree introduced to Sri Lanka, stands at the Galle Fort‘s Akersloot Bastion, on the eastern edge of the fort. The tree is located within the grounds of the Harbour Master’s Official Residence, also known as the Port Authority Bungalow.

As the property is a ministerial bungalow, the public does not normally have access to the tree. However, if no one is present at the bungalow, visitors may have an opportunity to see the tree if they obtain permission to enter the premises.

References

Baker, S. W. (1854). The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon (1st ed.). longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.
Brodie, A. O. (1853). Statistical Account of the District of Chilaw and Putlam, North-Western Province. Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, II, 26–150.
Clement, R. T. (1989). The Mutiny on the Bounty: An Exhibition Commemorating the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Mutiny (1st ed.). Friends of the Brigham Young University Library.
Percival, R. (1805). An Account of the Island of Ceylon: Containing Its History, Geography, Natural History, with Manners and Customs of Its Various Inhabitants (2nd ed.). C. And R. Baldwin. (Original work published 1803)
Situge, H. D. (1997). First Bread Fruit Tree (Artocarpus incisus) – “Rata Del”: A Landmark in Galle Fort. Loris, XXI(4), 187–188.

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