Songfruit
Songfruit is a yellow-skinned stone fruit that grows in Occrea and the surrounding region. Shaped like a flower, its flesh is bright green with an unusual gel-like consistency. Songfruit trees are hardy plants which can weather droughts and floods alike, and can grow in small urban spaces as easily as fields. They are cheap and plentiful in Occrea, and one of the city-state's main terrestrial exports. The stones inside are not viable for planting soon after eating, so songfruit trees are not commonly found elsewhere on Naldu. The stones can be preserved for travel, but the method is expensive. Songfruit trees cannot grow on other planets.
While songfruit is often eaten raw, its flesh and skin are both used in a variety of ways. The thick starchy skin causes digestive upset if eaten raw, but when cooked loses its bitterness and is a good source of nutrients. Songfruit can be carefully peeled to leave the skin in one piece, and some local savoury dishes involve stuffing the skin with meat or vegetables and baking. The flesh is a key ingredient in many desserts and sometimes used as an alternative sweetener.
Songfruit, sometimes called songbird fruit, gets its name from Occrean folklore. Before the then-small city of Occrea became a world power, the Fyridian songbird was native to the region and nested in what would later be called songfruit trees--which, according to the tales, at that time were not fruitbearing trees. The Fyridian songbird was hunted to extinction after a myth arose that its heart held the cure for Chalk Mouth, which had no effective treatment at the time. It's said that when the last songbird was killed, its dying song caused its home tree to flower, and when it died the flowers turned into flower-shaped fruit as sweet as the bird's song. Ironically, songfruit flesh is a key ingredient in modern treatment for Chalk Mouth.
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