Lanzones

Lanzones fruit, tree, and scale insect with badlit bisaya art

Chances are, you’ve met Lanzones!

They’re so delicious, they are celebrated every year when they are in season. They’re also known as buahan or buwahan in Basilan (JS Felix Localpedia), as well as langsat in Indonesia, and langseh in Malaysia among many other names (Abdallah 2022).

Lanzones or Lansium domesticum is native to Southeast Asia, with the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand as important sources of lanzones commercially (Abdallah 2022).

Being native to the region, it has long been used as medicine to treat eye inflammation, ulcers, diarrhea, fever, flatulence, worms, insect bites, and more. In some places the fruit peel is dried and then burned to drive way mosquitoes (Abdallah 2022).

Humans aren’t the only ones who love lanzones… there is a small insect known as the lanzones scale insect that lives inside their leaves affecting lanzones production. It is known as Unaspis mabilis, because it can spread rapidly among lanzones trees, hence the word “mabilis” or fast in Tagalog! (Lit Jr. et al 2014)

So far this tiny little insect can only be found in the Philippines, but researchers believe it may have come from lanzones trees introduced from another country because of its invasive-like speed (Lit Jr. et al 2021).

Learn about Lanzones festivals happening every September to October at Filipinofood.art!

Get a free printable in the Gumroad shop!

A4 lanzones fruit, tree, and scale insect coloring page

References