It’s considered an invasive species, even if it arrived in Brazil centuries ago. Ecologists disdain it for crowding out native species in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest – especially Tijuca park, one of the world’s largest urban forests.

Cyclists spread news of the jackfruit accident on message groups and Facebook, accusing the fruit of assault. One posted that he had skidded on jackfruit. Others shared close calls, such as a jackfruit exploding so close it splattered a bike’s spokes with shrapnel. Riding under jackfruit, another said, was like Russian roulette.

The spreading outrage was potential trouble for Marisa Furtado and Pedro Lobao, a couple who champion the jackfruit. Furtado, 57, drinks a jackfruit smoothie every day. She dreams of a pilgrimage to the jackfruit’s point of origin, India.

She and her 54-year-old partner, Lobao, collect unripe jackfruit from trees, process them for sale, donate whatever they can’t unload, and share free recipes. She rattles off dishes – jackfruit cod, jackfruit lasagne, jackfruit pie, jackfruit tenderloin – and insists that they are both tasty and nutritious.

When Brazilians consume jackfruit, they are mostly eaten ripe, the flesh tasting like a combination of pear and banana; unripe jackfruit can be used in savoury dishes.

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In Rio’s tony Ipanema neighbourhood, plant-based restaurant Teva’ s top-selling starter is BBQ jackfruit tacos, says head chef Daniel Biron. His clientele is often surprised by the new taste. “They start to open their minds to a universe they didn’t know,” he adds. “The jackfruit has that capacity.”

Regina Tchelly, who hails from poor, northeastern Paraiba state and runs culinary project Favela Organica in Rio, enjoyed jackfruit flesh and roasted seeds as a girl.

In 2018, with money tight, she dreamt up a spin on shredded chicken dumplings made from jackfruit. It sold like crazy, she says, adding that jackfruit could help reduce Brazilian hunger, a fresh concern after the government ended Covid-19 welfare payments.

“It’s a food that’s so abundant, and the jackfruit can bring lots of nutrients to your body and be a source of income,” Tchelly says.

In the 17th century, the Portuguese transported jackfruit seedlings to Brazil and the tree soon reached Rio, according to Rogério Oliveira, a specialist in environmental and ecological history at Rio’s Pontifical Catholic University (PUC). Rio’s forest was being cleared for timber, charcoal, coffee and sugar cane plantations, he adds.

Jackfruit thrived in the degraded soil and produced gargantuan fruit that crashed to the ground and tumbled downhill, scattering seeds. The trees, which can reach 25 metres in height, took root, anchoring the soil and feeding animals.

“Before, removal of jackfruit trees was an internal issue of the park. But now there are jackfruits threatening lives,” says Raphael Pazos, 46, founder of Rio de Janeiro’s Cycling Safety Commission. “If he hadn’t been wearing a helmet, or if it had fallen on a four-year-old, it could’ve killed.”

Furtado has tried to calm the outcry by steering cyclists to mapping jackfruit trees’ locations, posting signs about their benefits and organising the collection of fruit. Along the road, she says, jackfruit could be snagged using a truck-mounted crane, then donated to surrounding communities, with her organisation Hand in the Jackfruit holding workshops to teach the sticky, labour-intensive art of processing the fruit.

She acknowledges the importance of diversity, but she argues a centuries-old Brazilian resident shouldn’t be cast out of the garden.

“It’s an inheritance that needs to be valued, from the social, economic, cultural and environmental points of view,” she posted on Instagram. “Eradicating it would be a huge error and part of the arrogance of those who don’t perceive life is dynamic.”

Environmental specialist Oliveira says there’s no doubt ecologically that native species should be substituted for jackfruit in Tijuca park. But in urban areas, it’s free fruit for people who don’t always have access to it and it’s apparently not as invasive as believed, he says.

The tree becomes hyper-dominant where soil is degraded, but an experiment of his found seeds didn’t germinate in robust forest. He believes populations should be managed through girdling: slicing off a bark ring, which usually kills a tree in months. The government has prioritised jackfruit eradication for Tijuca National Park.

Some days after the jackfruit accident, cyclists from the safety commission convened at Tijuca park’s entrance. They embraced Furtado’s proposal to collect and distribute jackfruit to surrounding communities.

“We didn’t even know an association that did this existed,” Pazos says. “There’s no way to dislike the idea of giving food to the population.”

Yet they still favoured girdling all roadside jackfruit trees. He pointed out that another jackfruit had dropped just downhill, smack in the middle of the road.

Furtado concedes a few roadside trees could be removed as a last resort if collection or pruning proves impossible, and after a careful impact study. She vehemently opposes girdling or herbicide and believes in management through consumption.

“If we eat the jackfruit and their seeds,” she said, “we can contain them.”