The Cannonball Tree - Couroupita guianensis - Flower Images Taken Today

These photos were taken today at Centenary Lakes in Cairns. I was not able to stay long but got a few interesting images. The scent of these flowers is really very lovely. Sweet and perfume-like. In the first photo there is a nipple like thing inside lower down and this must be the embryo fruit. Here are some Internet facts:-

SMALL STATEMENT

Large fruit that has the size and shape of a cannonball. A definite eye catcher, the cannonball fruits grow en masse from stalks surrounding the trunk of the large tree. A large tree, up to 50-75ft tall. It will only grow in tropical zones and is very susceptible to frost. Flowers (followed by fruit), grow directly from the trunk. Fruits are soft and very fleshy.

FROM WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPAEDIA

It grows to 30-35m tall, with leaves in whorls on the ends of the shoots. The flowers, which are borne only on special stems on the main trunk, are orange, scarlet or pink forming racemes up to 3 m long. They mature into large spherical woody fruit 15-24 cm diameter, containing numerous (200-300) seeds. The pulp of the fruits oxidizes bluish, and has an unpleasant smell. Like coconut palms, the trees should not be planted near paths or near traffic filled areas, as the heavy nut is known to fall without notice. The trees are grown extensively in Shiva temples in India. It is called the 'nagalingam' tree in Tamil. The flowers are called 'Shivalinga flowers', 'Nagamalli flowers' or 'Mallikarjuna flowers' in Telugu. It is considered a sacred tree among Hindus because the flower resembles a nagam or a sacred snake on the central large shiva lingam and numerous shivalingams around.

THIS IS AN ASIAN SITE

Common name: Cannon Ball Tree • Hindi: Nagalinga नागलिंग, Tope gola तोप गोला • Kannada: Lingada mara, Nagalingam • Marathi: Shivalingam • Bengali: Kaman gola • Tamil: நாகலிங்கம் Naagalingam
This large deciduous tropical tree, 75' tall and indigenous to the Amazon rainforest, is listed as a rare tree and flower in India. The leaves, up to 6" long, are simple with serrate margin; it flowers in racemes which is cauliflorus; the yellow, reddish and pink flowers are stunning fragrant. These are 3" to 5" waxy aromatic smelling, pink and dark-red flowers growing directly on the bark of the trunk. The tree bears, directly on the trunk and main branches, large globose woody fruits; they look like big rusty cannonballs hanging in clusters, like balls on a string. Cannon ball trees usually carry 'CAUTION' signs posted on the trunks to advise people not to stand close to and directly under the fruits as one can get hurt as they drop off by themselves. The fruit contains small seeds in a white, unpleasant smelling white jelly, which are exposed when the upper half of the fruit goes off like a cover. The long dangling fruity branches give the tree an unkempt appearance. The hard shells are used to make containers and utensils. Cannon ball flowers are considered of special significance in Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka. In Tamil Nadu, it is called Nagalingam flower. The sivalingam shape is visible at the center of the flower and snake shaped pollen is the specialty of this flower and it has very good fragrance. This rare flower can be used for Shiva Pooja

FROM ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF EARTH - www.eoearth.org/article/Cannon_ball_tree_(Couroupita_guia...

Pollination of the Flower - The flowers (Fig.2) of C. guianensis are without nectar and are mostly visited by bees in search of pollen. The structure of the male part of the flower is not found in any other plant family in the world except for other species of the Brazil nut family. In the cannon ball tree, fertile stamens are found in a ring around the reduced style and stamens with sterile pollen are located in the anthers of staminodes located in the hood (a prolongation from one side of the staminal ring that arches over the ovary) (Fig. 1C). Carpenter bees (Xylocopa brasilianorum) have been reported as the principal pollinators outside of the native range of the cannon ball tree in the botanical garden of the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. The large black carpenter bees enter the flowers with their ventral side toward the sterile stamens of the hood and their head and backs against the ring with fertile pollen and, as a result of their position, they are dusted with pollen on their heads and back. The two types of pollen were first described as being different in 1825 by the French botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau who was the first to recognize the family Lecythidaceae in the same publication. The morphological and physical differences of the pollen have been demonstrated by several botanists since that time. The most important pollen difference is that the pollen of the ring stamens germinates and is fertile while the hood pollen does not and is sterile. Thus, hood pollen has become specialized as the reward to attract pollinators to the flowers. In turn, the fertile pollen is transferred to the next flowers the bees visit and as a result fruits and seeds develop. Most fruits of this species in nature are probably the result of the movement of pollen from one tree to another, but experiments show that self-pollinated plants of the cannon ball tree also set fruit.

Taken on: June 4, 2008

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