Crescentia cujete
Description
Crooked tree to 10 m, 30 cm Ø.
Leaves in scattered bundles on the rough twigs, obspathulate, sometimes short-acuminate, without petiole, up to 26 by 7½ cm.
Flowers solitary or in pairs on the twigs, of a musty odor;
Fruit broad-ellipsoid to globular, 13-20 by up to 30 cm, indehiscent, with a hard shell.
Distribution
American and other tropics present, Asia-Tropical, Southern America
Central America, very widely and early distributed in the American and other tropics, throughout Malesia, in the lowland, grown in lawns, parks and used for hedges.
Uses
The pulp is sometimes used for medicinal purpose and the hard shells are commonly in use for drinking cups, vessels, and carving.
Notes
I saw the type of C. ovata BURM. f. which was described from Java and which was in Index Kewensis reduced to C. cucurbitina L. (now Amphitecna latifolia (MILL.) GENTRY); the type consists of 3 leaves and a single damaged flower; the sheet carries no name, but the note 'Kalbas, 4 stam., 1 pistile'.