D24, Sultan and a code that seems to fit two fruits
The old Bukit Merah durian has a royal nickname, a disputed paper trail and a story about sultans that is hard to pin down.
If its registration date is right, D24 is decades older on paper than Musang King. The Straits Times still lists it alongside Musang King (D197) and Black Thorn (D200) among the varieties that made Malaysian durian known abroad. Its early history, however, comes with loose ends.
Wikipedia's Sultan King page says the fruit came from Bukit Merah, on the border of Penang and Perak, and was registered with the Department of Agriculture in 1934 under the code D24. That date rests on a produce-reference website rather than an agricultural record. A 2022 Utusan Malaysia report, built on price data published by the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority, complicates things. It says the Sultan variety shares the D24 code with another durian, XO Bukit, which it says has grown wild in Bukit Merah, Perak, since 1937. Sultan, by that report, was registered in 1934 and also traces to Bukit Merah.
Why Sultan? Wikipedia ties the name to Malaysia's state rulers and says the fruit was once scarce and set aside for them. The supporting reference is a Singapore durian seller's guide, and the naming sentence itself carries no citation, so it is better read as lore than as documented history.
Lore would not be unusual here. Speaking to The Star in 2024, Penang's agriculture director Mohd Muhaimin Ibrahim said growers usually name durians themselves, often before registration, and draw on how the fruit or tree looks. Official numbers come later, and they do not always clear up what a grower's name first meant.
Sources
- Bukit Merah origin, 1934 registration, and the reference used for the sultan association
- Sultan and XO Bukit both given as D24; 1934 and 1937 dates
- Penang Agriculture Department director on how durians are named
- D24 listed with D197 and D200 as internationally known varieties