South most Florida 2- The Fruit and Spice Park

The next stop in South Florida was the Fruit and Spice Park in Redlands FL. This place is a sprawling group of paths that takes you by all manner of exotic trees and plants. All types of bananas, hundreds of varieties of mangos, a beautiful bamboo forest and even an area for poisonous plants.

The rules are simple- you can try any fruits that have fallen from the trees- you can not pick fruit from the trees and you can not remove fruit from the park.

On entering the park you are treated to a sample of that days ripe fruits. Here, from left to right on the top- Mamey Sapote, Canistel, Sour Guava, and more mamey sapote. From left to right on the bottom- Atemoya, unknown white fruit, Black Sapote and Sapodilla. All of these are really good. I especially like the Sour Guava or Asian Guava, the Mamey Sapote ( which tastes like pumpkin) and the Sapodilla (which tastes like a pear with cinnamon on it).

Banana jungle at the Fruit and Spice Park

Coconut palms and Sapote trees.

Phallic Sausage Tree- This fruit is used to make a beer like brew that supposedly keeps away tornadoes.

Sugar Apple- We did not try these but the Atemoya is a  hybrid of this fruit which was sampled at the  welcome center.

I highly recommend this park for anyone interested in fruit baring trees. The paths are also broken into geographical themes to some extent and are lovely to walk. Another nice thing about the park is that you get to see a good amount of exotic reptile action. We saw several very well fed iguanas and a bunch of beautiful Knight Anoles. Look for them in the bamboo forest if you go!