Most durian buyers never meet D2. Malaysia registered it in 1934 as one of its very first clones, under the name Dato Nina, and the export machine built around Musang King and Black Thorn has left this heritage fruit to a small circle of growers and old-school durian eaters. It is worth knowing anyway, because D2 does two things the famous clones cannot.
I grow durian in a heated hoophouse outside San Diego, alongside my Monthong and Musang King. After root rot took a Musang King graft one wet winter, I went looking for a clone that could shrug off the same fungus, and that search led me to D2 Dato Nina. On our Exotic Fruits and Vegetables benches, the young D2 held through a cold, soggy February that would have rotted the Musang King it replaced.
The fruit is odd, the tree is tougher than most, and the eating is nothing like the fibreless custard clones. Here is what sets it apart.
The fruit itself
D2 is easy to spot once you have seen one. It is kidney-shaped, lumpy and irregular where most commercial clones are neat ovals, and it stays small. A whole D2 runs just 1.3 to 1.8 kg, with a low flesh-to-shell ratio, so one fruit barely fills a bowl.
Dato Nina carries a title for a reason. In Malaysia, Dato is an honorific conferred by a Sultan, and this clone was one of the earliest the Department of Agriculture logged when it began registering durians in 1934. It came out of Melaka and was still turning up on connoisseur stalls ninety years later.
Split it open and the pulps bulge out a dull orangey-yellow, closer to old-coin bronze than the golden custard of Musang King. The skin on each segment is thin and wrinkly, the flesh underneath thick and firm, and the fruitlets cling to the inner pod walls when you crack the fruit. That bronze color is part of D2’s signature, and older trees once carried it even redder.
The husk is a trap. It is thin by durian standards, yet the valves lock shut and the small sharp spines give no grip. Force a D2 open and the thin shell crushes the flesh against itself; score it along a suture line and pry slowly instead. Ever wrenched a thin durian open and found the pulp smashed flat against the shell?
Opening one cleanly takes a method. Here is the order that works for me:
- Find the faint suture lines running from the stem end down the fruit.
- Stand the stem end on a board and score one suture with a stiff knife, cutting only through the husk.
- Work the tip into the score and twist to pop the seam, keeping the blade shallow.
- Pull the halves apart by hand so the thin shell does not fold onto the flesh.
- Lift each fruitlet off the pod wall with a spoon, since D2’s pulp sticks where other clones fall free.
Texture is the other surprise. D2 is fibrous, and after a run of smooth clones that can read like a step backward, right up until you chew. The fiber makes you work the flesh, and the balanced flavor builds with each bite rather than sliding away. If you have only eaten Musang King, are you ready for a durian you actually have to chew?
| Trait | D2 Dato Nina |
|---|---|
| Registered | 1934, among Malaysia’s first clones |
| Origin | Melaka, Malaysia |
| Fruit weight | 1.3 to 1.8 kg, kidney-shaped |
| Flesh | Thick, firm, bronze, fibrous |
| Husk | Thin but hard to open, small spines |
| Disease | Good Phytophthora stem-canker tolerance |
| Typical price | Around RM32 per kg |
Growing D2 where others rot
The reason I keep a D2 has nothing to do with its looks. D2 shows good tolerance to Phytophthora stem canker, the rot that kills Musang King in wet ground. For a grower fighting damp, that tolerance is worth more than an extra point of sweetness.
My D2 graft cost 40 dollars and a season to establish, and it earned its place the first wet winter. The Musang King beside it had died of root rot the year before in the same medium, while the D2 pushed new flush through the same cold, soggy stretch without a spot of canker.
Past that tolerance, D2 asks for what any durian wants: a fast-draining coir and perlite mix, night lows held above 60 F, a soil pH near 5.5, and the same grafting any other clone gets. Its smaller fruit is a quiet advantage too, since the branches carry the crop without as much propping.
Are you planning to plant durian where the drainage is marginal or the winters run wet? On that kind of ground, a clone’s stem-canker tolerance decides more about your harvest than its flavor score does, so is chasing the sweetest cultivar really the right call for your site?
The number that pushed me to swap clones was the cost of the disease itself, since one Phytophthora outbreak can erase a season. Running the likely loss from stem canker against the price of a tolerant tree is how I justified the change.
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What you get when you eat it
D2 rewards patience at the table more than at the till. The flesh is thick and creamy under the fiber, leaning dry, with a balanced sweet-bitter profile and notes some tasters read as almond or custard. It skips the sulfurous punch of Musang King and works slower, lingering on the palate instead.
Yield is where D2 lets you down. My best fruit, about 1.6 kg, gave maybe two handfuls of edible flesh once I cleared the husk and seeds. At around RM32 a kilo the price looks fair, though you pay for shell as much as pulp.
That low return is the trade for the flavor and the chew, and it is why D2 stays a connoisseur’s fruit rather than an export crop. So who should seek it out? A short list:
- Durian eaters tired of smooth clones who want texture and a slower flavor.
- Growers on damp ground who need Phytophthora tolerance over premium sweetness.
- Collectors chasing heritage clones and odd, kidney-shaped fruit.
- Anyone who prefers a balanced, unaggressive durian to sharp bitterness.
Eat D2 at room temperature, not cold. Chilling firms the fiber further and mutes the flavor that the chewing is supposed to release, so I pull a fruit from the counter and open it only when the flesh has warmed through.
Because so much of a D2 is husk and seed, it pays to know what you are actually buying by weight. Estimating the edible flesh from a whole fruit before you commit tells you whether the price per kilo is fair.
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Is D2 worth it
If you grow durian in wet conditions and have already lost a tree to canker, D2 earns a spot for its tolerance alone, and the fibrous bronze flesh is a bonus once you learn to open the fruit. For a buyer counting cost per gram of flesh, the low yield makes it an occasional splurge rather than a staple.
My one D2 stays partly as insurance against the rot that took my Musang King, and partly because its slow, chewy flavor is a break from the custard clones. Track down a single fruit before you commit a tree to it, open it carefully, and decide whether the chew and the bronze color are worth the small return for your own palate.
