Barbados Cherry or Malpighia Aerola 2.5" Tall Pot Starter Plant

Acerola is also known as "Antilles Cherry" or "Barbados Cherry." The mature fruits are juicy and soft with a pleasant tart flavor and they contains about 80% juice and a large amount of vitamin C as well as iron, calcium and phosphorous.

Small, bright red, berry-sized fruit with a vitamin C content up to 65 times that of an orange. A single fruit contains the minimum daily recommended vitamin C requirements. Fruit resembles the common cherry, with a very tasty sweet flavor having a slight bite of acid.

A bushy shrub up to 20ft. Acerola's often form small multi-trunked trees. Trees without adequate pollination can set seedless fruit. Flowers usually appear after periods of rainfall or irrigation. Flowering may occur any time during the year (depending on local rainfall and climate patterns), and can last year-round. After flower set, fruit soon follows and will ripen in just 3-4 weeks. Fruits lose their flavor and nutritional content very rapidly upon harvest. Ripe acerola's should be picked and eaten within a few hours to preserve taste. As a result, the tree is not cultivated for commercial production of fresh fruits.