AKEE, the West African name of a small tree (Blighia sapida) of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae), native to Guinea, and also of its important food fruit. Introduced in 1778 into Jamaica, which now exports the fruit, its cultivation has spread throughout most of tropical America. The shrub-like, stiff-branched tree, sometimes 20 ft. to 3o ft. high, bears handsome red or orange coloured fruits, about 3 in. long, in small clusters at the tips of slender branches. The fruit, which is a soft-walled capsule, splits when ripe into three sections, from apex to base, displaying round, shining, black seeds, attached to the base by large whitish or yellowish fleshy arils. When cooked the arils bear a resemblance to a fine omelette both in taste and in appearance ; the Latin American name seso vegetal (vegetable brain) is significant of their form.