Name: Medlar, common medlar (Mespilus germanica). Sometimes confused with the unrelated loquat, which is also nicknamed “Japanese medlar” but is a different fruit entirely (Eriobotrya japonica).
Description
The medlar is a small, thorny, deciduous tree in the rose family, native to Europe and southwestern Asia, grown for a brown, apple-shaped fruit topped with distinctive persistent sepals that give it an open, crown-like look. It has been cultivated in Europe for centuries but has always been a minor, somewhat old-fashioned fruit rather than a major commercial crop.
What sets the medlar apart is that it cannot be eaten straight off the tree: the fruit is hard and unpalatably astringent when picked, and must go through “bletting,” a controlled over-ripening in storage that turns the flesh soft, brown, and mushy before it becomes pleasantly sweet-tart. A related and far rarer American species, Stern's medlar, was only identified in Arkansas in 1990 and is critically endangered in the wild.
Main nutrition value
No USDA-analyzed nutrition data exists for medlar specifically. As a close relative in the same Rosaceae tribe, the figures below are for crab apple, a similarly small, hard, tart pome fruit, shown here as the nearest available approximation, per 100g raw:
| Name | Average Amount | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Proximates | ||
| Water | 78.9 | g |
| Energy | 76 | kcal |
| Protein | 0.4 | g |
| Total lipid (fat) | 0.3 | g |
| Ash | 0.42 | g |
| Carbohydrate, by difference | 20 | g |
| Minerals | ||
| Calcium, Ca | 18 | mg |
| Iron, Fe | 0.36 | mg |
| Magnesium, Mg | 7 | mg |
| Phosphorus, P | 15 | mg |
| Potassium, K | 194 | mg |
| Sodium, Na | 1 | mg |
| Copper, Cu | 0.067 | mg |
| Manganese, Mn | 0.115 | mg |
| Vitamins | ||
| Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid | 8 | mg |
| Thiamin | 0.03 | mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.02 | mg |
| Niacin | 0.1 | mg |
| Vitamin A, RAE | 2 | µg |
Like other small tart pome fruits, medlars are likely a source of potassium and vitamin C, though exact values for the fruit itself have not been analyzed.
How best to be consumed
Medlars must be bletted before eating — left in a cool place for several weeks after the first frost until the flesh softens and browns — after which the pulp can be scooped straight out of the skin and eaten with a spoon, often with cream or a little sugar. Bletted medlar pulp is also traditionally cooked into jelly or a thick, spiced fruit cheese.
Overconsumption could cause…
Bletted medlar flesh is safe to eat in ordinary amounts, but the seeds, like those of many other pome fruits in the rose family, should not be eaten in quantity. Unripe, unbletted medlar is extremely astringent and hard, and eating it in that state is more likely to cause an unpleasant, mouth-puckering reaction than any real health risk.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central — no entry exists for medlar in any FDC data type; substituted with Crabapples, raw (FDC ID 171721), the closest available nutritionally-analyzed relative (same Maleae tribe of Rosaceae, small hard tart pome fruit), 100g portion: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/171721/nutrients Encyclopaedia Britannica — medlar: https://www.britannica.com/plant/Mespilus
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