蓮霧

Posted by Tim Luo on 2006/3/12 9:43:58

蓮霧 is a delicious fruit here in Taiwan. It has many English names. It even has many scientific names.

Some scientific names I can find are listed here.

Syzygium samarangense
Syzygium javanicum
Eugenia javanica
Eugenia alba
Eugenia formosa
Myrtus samarangense

Its common names include Java apple, Java rose, rose apple, Samarang rose apple, water apple, wax jambu, wax apple, bell fruit, Malay apple, moutain apple and jambu.

This fruit is best known here in Taiwan by either wax apple or bell fruit.

Indeed the name 蓮霧 should come from jambu. The name jambu came from Sanskrit ultimately. In Minnan or Taiwanese, there's a tendency for j- sounds to change to l- sounds. Like in Xiamen, the j- sounds are bascially lost or changed to l- sounds. This should be why it's called so in Taiwanese.

Tim