Sweet Cliff

'Sweet Cliff' is the Florida name for the Chinese cultivar 'Tim Naan', also written Tian Yan, whose pinyin reading translates roughly as sweet rock. It reached Florida and Hawaii early in the twentieth century and has stayed a collector's and dooryard tree rather than a commercial one, entirely because of fruit size - it is markedly smaller than 'Brewster' or 'Mauritius'. What it offers in exchange is a very small seed relative to the fruit, heavy productivity for its size, and one of the most compact, slow-growing habits in the genus, which makes it a genuine option for a small yard. UF/IFAS recommends it for Florida home planting while marking commercial suitability unknown. One caution on names: some Australian references confusingly list 'Sweet Cliff' as a Florida synonym for 'Wai Chee', while UF/IFAS treats the two as separate cultivars.