RARE Organic Heirloom Callabash Fruit Tree Seeds
( Bottle Gourd Tree, Long Melon Tree, New Guinea bean, Tasmania Bean, Lagenaria Siceria) Seeds (10)
The flowers of the calabash tree are pollinated at night by small bats. The bats are attracted to the flowers by a slightly rotten smell. One possible reason for cauliflory in calabash is that it has co-evolved to aid its pollinator
A amazing, small tree native to the Caribbean, Central and South America with evergreen leaves that appear to grow right on the main branches, as do the nocturnal flowers that are followed by very large, green fruits with a soft pulp that has a variety of uses in traditional medicine. The woody shell is popular to make various handicrafts. It also makes a nice and very unusual ornamental for tropical and some warm temperate regions.
Calabash (Lagenaria siceraria), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, New Guinea bean and Tasmania bean is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil.
Crescentia Cujete is a smooth, much-branched tree growing to a height of 2 to 5 meters. Branches are arching with close-set clusters of leaves. Leaves are alternate, often fascicled at the nodes, oblanceolate, 5 to 17 centimeters long, glossy at the upper surface, blunt at the tip and narrowed at the base. Flowers develop from the buds that grow from the main trunk, yellowish and sometimes veined with purple, with a slightly foetid odor, occurring singly or in pairs at the leaf axils, stalked and about 6 centimeters long, and opens in the evening. Calyx is about 2 centimeters long, and split into two lobes. Fruit is short-stemmed, rounded, oval or oblong, green or purplish, 15 to 20 centimeters in diameter.
Crescentia Cujete is an evergreen tropical tree, with spreading branches and broad head. It has a rough bark and simple leaves.
Calabash Tree has cauliflorus flowers that appear directly from nodes on the trunk and branches. The flowers are 2 inches long with yellowish corolla with red or purple veins. Calabash produces very large green smooth fruit resembling a gourd that have a hard thin shell. The fruits are large, globulose up to 12 to 14 inches in diameter. Inside there is a pulp that has medicinal applications. The flat seeds are small and embedded in the pulp. Fruits take about six months to ripen.
- In some countries, the dried shell of the fruit is used to make bowls and fruit containers, decorated with paintings or carvings.
- Used in making maracas or musical rattle..
- In Brazil, the fibrous lining of the fruit is sometimes used as a substitute for cigarette paper.
- A favorite perch for orchids..