Averrhoa bilimbi

Content

Description

Shrub or tree, up to 15 m, 30 cm ø. Leaves 7-19-jugate, usually terminally tufted; Flowers heterotristylous, usually MF. Sepals 3-8 by 1½-3 mm, yellowish red to purplish, sparsely appressed-puberulous outside mainly at base, inside glabrous or subglabrous, elliptic to lanceolate or spathulate, acute to rounded. Petals free, 10-20 by 3-4 mm, lanceolate-spathulate, inside glabrous, claw 3-6 mm. Stamens all fertile, in SF 3½-4 and 7 mm, in MF 2-5 and 9-12 mm, in LF 5 and 7½ mm, bases not thickened. Panicles cauliflorous on tubercles, nearly down to ground-level, fasciculate and pendulous up to 20 cm, rarely axillary, solitary and erect. Ovary densely appressed pale strigose and with short, septate-glandular hairs, in SF 2-2½ by 1 mm, in MF 3-4 by 1-1½ mm, in LF 4 by 1 mm, elliptic; Fruit terete-obtusangular, up to 10 by 5 cm, elliptic to obovate, obtuse, rimae present (?), base tapering. Seeds up to 14, 6-7 by 4-6 mm, exarillate;

Distribution

East Malesia present

Native country unknown, widely cultivated, escaping freely, often a relict of former cultivation, for instance in East Malesia.

Uses

In the Malay Peninsula the leaves are used as a paste against itches, eaten against syphilis and a decoction is drunk after childbirth. In Java the leaves are used against mumps, rheumatism and pimples, against piles; a decoction of the flowers is used against cough and thrush. The fruit juice is generally used against fevers, scurvy, beri-beri, biliousness, coughs and piles; it also removes stains from laundry, hands and weapons. See KOORDERS & VALETON (1903), HEYNE (1927), OCHSE & BAKHUIZEN (1931), BURKILL (1935), and QUISUMBING (1951). Fruits and flowers are edible but more acid than those of A. carambola.

Citation

ENDL. 1839: Gen. Pl.: 1173

LINNÉ 1921: En. Born.: 311

HEYNE 1927: Nutt. Pl.: 852

EDGEW. & HOOK.f. 1874 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 439

CAV. 1789: p. 373. – In: Diss.: f. 219

BLANCO 1837: Fl. Filip.: 391

BURK. 1935: Dict.: 270

Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 139

BACK. & BAKH.f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 247

PROGEL 1877 – In: Fl. Bras.: 520

DC. 1824 – In: Prod.: 689

OCHSE & BAKH. 1931: Ind. Groenten: 546

QUIS. 1951: Med. Pl. Philip.: 438

Roxb. 1832 – In: Fl. Ind., ed. Carey: 451

Ridl. 1922 – In: Fl. Mal. Pen.: 331

TRIMEN 1887 – In: J. Linn. Soc. Bot.: 129

Merr. 1918: Sp. Blanc.: 195

K. & V. 1903 – In: Bijdr.: 111

Koord. 1918 – In: Atlas: 601, 602

SORGDRAGER 1941 – In: Pharm. Tijd.: repr. 4 pp.

BENTHALL 1933: Trees of Calcutta: 70

W. & A. 1834: Prod.: 142

VELDK. 1970 – In: Fl. Thail.: 22

KNUTH 1930 – In: Pfl. R.: 418