Common Name: Calabash Tree

General Information

Crescentia cujete is a small or medium-sized tree, usually 10 metres high or less, with a thick bole and a dense rounded crown[].
The plant is widely cultivated as an ornamental shade or specimen tree in tropical areas[]. The largest fruits upon the tree, globose in form, remind one somewhat of green pumpkins, and a small tree loaded with these huge fruits is an almost unbelievable sight[]. The dry fruits are a very important article in Guatemala and throughout Central America and Mexico, where they have been used since ancient times, in much the same way as the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), to make containers, cups, spoons etc for various purposes[, ].

Known Hazards

The pulp of the fruit is poisonous[].
The seeds are poisonous[].

Botanical References

,

Range

Tropical America - Colombia north through Central America to Mexico and most of the Caribbean

Habitat

Coastal scrub, dry lowlands in clearings[]. Roadsides, old pastures, thickets and woodland margins at elevations from sea level to 420 metres in Jamaica[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Deciduous Tree
Height	10.00 m
Growth Rate	Slow
Pollinators	Bats
Cultivation Status	Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the lowland tropics.
Prefers a fertile, moist soil in a sunny position[]. Established plants are very drought tolerant[].
Plants do not flower until they are quite large[], then they can flower all year round[]. The flowers emit a pungent, musky, cabbage scent in the evenings[].
The large fruits have nectaries that are believed to attract stinging ants. These ants then ward off herbivores such as goats[].
The trees seem to afford a particularly good habitat for epiphytes, and in the wild they often are covered with orchids, bromeliads, and other plants[, ]. Blocks of the wood, used for mounting epiphytic plants, are sold commercially[].

Edible Uses

The young fruit is occasionally pickled[, ]. Considered the equal of pickled walnuts[].

The seed can be eaten when cooked[]. It is also used to make a beverage[]. A syrup and a popular confection called 'carabobo' is made from the seed[]. To make the syrup, the seeds are ground finely, mixed with sugar and a little water then boiled[].

The roasted seeds, combined with roasted wheat, are used as an aromatic and flavourful coffee substitute[].

The leaves are sometimes cooked in soups[].

Medicinal

The pulp (of the fruit?[]) is astringent, emollient, expectorant and laxative[]. It is used in domestic medicines[].

The fruit is abortifacient, emetic, emmenagogue, purgative and vermifuge[]. A syrup made from the pulp of the fruit is a popular remedy for colds[]. The juice of the fruit is used to treat diarrhoea, pneumonia and intestinal irregularity. It is made into a strong tea and drunk to procure an abortion, to ease childbirth, and is used in a mix to relieve severe menstrual pains by eliminating blood clots[]. A syrup made from the fruit is used to treat consumption[].

The leaves are astringent, cholagogue, emetic (in larger doses), and purgative[, ]. An infusion is sometimes administered for treating dysentery[]. It is boiled with sugar, soft grease or Buckley's white rub to make a syrup that is used to treat colds[]. Juice of young leaves is drunk to remedy colds and lung diseases[].
The leaf is chewed to treat toothache[]
The leaves are used as a wash to cleanse dirty wounds[]. The crushed leaves are applied on wounds to stop bleeding and promote healing[]. The pounded leaves are applied as a poultice for reating headache[].

The whole plant is used as a diuretic against hydropsy and diarrhoea[].

A decoction of the bark is used to clean wounds[].

The ripe fruit-pulp contains crescentic, tartaric, citric, tannic, chlorogenic and hydrocyanic acids, and may cause abortion in cattle[].
The seed oil contains oleic acid[].
The stem-bark and leaf show antimicrobial activity[]

Agroforestry Uses:

The plant is sometimes grown in hedges[].

Other Uses

The plant produces subglobose hard-shelled fruits about 15 - 30cm long[]. Local people constrict the growth of these fruits by tying strings around them and, by so doing, fashion them into a variety of shapes. These can then be used as rattles, bowls, cups, containers etc, in much the same way as bottle gourds are used[, ].
The most general use of the shells is for making drinking vessels, but the larger ones serve to store all sorts of articles[]. Sections of the oblong forms are much used in place of spoons[]. Many of the jicaras, as the cups made from the shells are called, are handsomely decorated in colours or by incised designs[]. The hard, smooth shells polish well and are finely carved for ritual use in some parts of Africa[].

The wood is light brown or yellowish brown, with fine veining of darker colour, without distinctive taste or odour; moderately hard and heavy, tough and strong, coarse-textured, fairly easy to work, takes a smooth finish; but is probably not durable[]. It is used for ox yokes, tool handles, and vehicle parts[] and is sometimes used in construction[].
Thick crooked limbs often are used in Guatemala for making saddle trees[]. The wood has been used from Colonial times to the present to make stirrups - some of those of the colonial period are beautifully carved and are real objects of art[]. The wood is easy to carve when still green but when thoroughly seasoned is 'like iron' and some have perhaps been in use for 'hundreds' of years[].
The wood is also used for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed -
Air-layering.
Cuttings.

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