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Can someone name the fruit in the pictures?

Picture of a long green fruit split open Picture of a long green fruit

Here in El Salvador we call it paterna but if I literally translate it means something related to father as in paternal X obviously it's not what I'm looking for. So if someone knows the name of it please be kind enough to share it with me.

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    I've never seen anything like it. It is possible that there is no English name for it.
    – Colin Fine
    Apr 20, 2016 at 20:10
  • A little searching suggests that the fruta paterna is also called guama, guaba, or inga. We don't seem to have a common name for it, so it looks like it's just called by its scientific name, Inga edulis.
    – stangdon
    Apr 20, 2016 at 20:12
  • I did find some references to inga bean, inga fruit, and even "ice cream bean"!
    – stangdon
    Apr 20, 2016 at 20:20
  • I agree this is not guava or guaba. However I've found the name guama to be useful when referring to this fruit. Although I still have doubts about how should I refer to it when talking to an English speaker.
    – Manuel Hernandez
    Apr 20, 2016 at 20:21
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    There is no English word that I have found...I love paternas I eat them all the time with lime salt and hot sauce!
    – Lisa
    Jun 21, 2017 at 22:14

2 Answers 2

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I'm not sure about this, but Wikipedia refers to this fruit as the "Inga". This is a little-known fruit (I'm assuming), so you'll probably not need to use this fruit much. When talking to anyone, just call it an 'Inga' or 'Inga fruit'.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your English!

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  • Well I think I'll just call it inga then.
    – Manuel Hernandez
    Apr 20, 2016 at 20:30
  • There's another name for it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inga_feuillei
    – Victor B.
    Apr 20, 2016 at 20:55
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    I think I changed my mind I'm just going to call it "paterna" because I was talking to my father and he said that: paleto, guama, inga and pepeto are different than paterna and that there are many more fruits that look like paterna but they aren't so I'm just calling it paterna.
    – Manuel Hernandez
    Apr 20, 2016 at 21:06
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    @ManuelHernandez I think that is a good idea. If you said "My favorite fruit is called paterna." I would just assume there was no English word for it and say "I've never heard of that one - what does it taste like?" There are many instances of plants keeping their names from their native country, like Rambutan for example.
    – ColleenV
    Apr 20, 2016 at 23:28
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I believe this is commonly called Ice cream bean fruit.

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    Brenda, can you cite a source to make this a better answer?
    – Davo
    Oct 2, 2018 at 21:25
  • @Brenda, I added a Google search result link, but please feel free to edit the link/source.
    – shin
    Oct 3, 2018 at 4:21

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