Misiones, Argentina, is home to the world’s only edible tree: The Yacaratia, a species that you can eat as it is perfectly safe for human consumption.
According to a Misiones local tour guide and expert naturalist, Gloria Gomez, “The yacaratiá is a plant that belongs to the papaya family, native to the Paraná jungle. Here we call it mamón del monte. I understand that might be a rude word in Spain [sucker], but here papaya is known as mamón.”
The tree’s wood is edible because it doesn’t contain cellulose
Wood from trees is not edible anywhere else in the world, this phenomenon is exclusive to the Jacaratia Spinosa tree in Misiones, Argentina. What makes this more intriguing, however, is the fact that according to Gloria Gomez, “Its wood is edible because it doesn’t contain cellulose, and it also has a high water content (moisture).”
Its high concentration of water does not make it automatically edible, however. Gomez explains that before consumption, the wood has to be harvested for 24 hours in order for it to be safe for humans.
This is what makes the Yacaratia so unique, as there are trees whose bark a human can eat, like the willow, pine, or poplar, but not the wood.
The Yacaratia tree was discovered by Argentina’s Guarani indigenous people
This tree was rediscovered relatively recently. In 1991, Argentinian forest engineer Roberto Pascutti found a manuscript written by a Jesuit named Basaldua, which mentioned a rather odd custom from the Guarani people, which involved eating worms off the Yacaratia’s wood.
According to Gloria Gomez, “The Guaraní used to eat it raw or lightly roasted over embers,” but it was “the forestry engineer Pascutti who patented the project for making this wood edible.”
Pascutti spent five years in the jungle with Guarani communities. He created and patented the process in which the wood of the Yacaratia tree became edible.
How do Argentinians eat the Yacaratia tree?
According to the tourist guide from the El Soberbio municipality, the Yacaratia wood is prepared in the middle of the Argentinian jungle by removing the outer bark and cooking the inner part of the wood. Others claim, however, that boiling the wood is enough. There are some who eat it raw.
People often eat the wood with caramels and other sweets. It is also commercialized as a sort of wood jam.
Recently, influencers from Argentina went viral as they prepared the Yacaratia as a Milanesa, a national dish, naming it “Wooden Milanesa” (Milanesa de Madera).
Those who have eaten the wood from the Yacaratia tree have said that it tastes somewhat like cheese. Others claim that it doesn’t really have a flavor, whilst some claim it tastes like shredded coconut.