Durian

Durio zibethinus

Malvaceae

The spiny Southeast Asian fruit people argue about in elevators — custard if you like it, a gas leak if you do not.

Ripe arils are food. The odor is legal; the unripe fruit is not a snack. Hotels and trains may still ban the husk.

Parts used: Ripe aril
Traditional notes: Kitchen fruit · Traditional Malay and Thai dessert · A cooked savory in some kitchens
Grow · USDA 6b: Tropical tree, USDA 11. Not a temperate experiment. A named graft in the tropics. A pit north is a houseplant with ambitions. In work: Jun · Jul · Aug
Harvest: When it drops, in season. Climbing for unripe is how people get hurt.

Buy frozen Monthong if you are curious and far from a market.
Open it outside the first time.

Safety

A husk in a sealed hotel room if you like having neighbors

Lore

Malay duri is the thorn. Wallace wrote that it was worth a trip to the East. Singapore still posts the crossed-out husk on the MRT. The English ‘king of fruits’ is marketing that happens to be how some locals talk. The smell is chemistry, not a character test. You can fail it and still be decent.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.