Dr Abdul Aziz Zakaria’s once was a lecturer on irrigation at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM). Some 30 years ago his father, an avid durian collector, gave him a plot of land in their home state of Kelantan. Over time, he began to follow in his father’s footsteps. “I started collecting and planting durians in 1988 as a hobby when my father told me.
Later, his mother gave him a two-acre plot, and he himself purchased a three-acre piece of land. Today, his three farms are host to 70 to 80 different kinds of durian trees and about 50 lesser-known traditional local fruit trees like buah tampui, buah kerian, buah bacang and buah tarap.
The durio dulcis, or red durian, is just one of the rare durian varieties in Aziz’s collection.
Today, Aziz has amassed quite a large repository of rare durian varieties, like the durian botak and the prized durian kura-kura.
Aziz has also collected the rare red-coloured durio dulcis, which has a red exterior. But his favourite durian variety is the durio graveolens, whose flesh is a vibrant red or orange. He has at least 30 different kinds in his collection.
The red-fleshed durian is Aziz’s favourite variety of durian.
To look for durian varieties, Aziz travels all over Malaysia, Brunei and other countries (although not as regularly these days as he doesn’t have much space on his farm anymore). Many years ago, he even managed to get a local kampung durian collector to share 30 of the 50 kampung durians he had collected.
Source: star2.com