Here we call it as Beggars bowl tree On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 10:48 AM, raman <[email protected]> wrote:
> The Calabash tree is a small tree of multiple uses, originating from > tropical America, now widely distributed in the tropics. The calabash tree > grows to 30 feet often with multiple trunks. The rangy twisting branches > have simple elliptical leaves clustered at the nodes. The greenish-yellow > flowers are marked with purple veins. The flowers arise from the trunk or > main branches and appear from May through January. The woody fruit, > botanically a capsule, is elliptic, ovate, or spherical and may grow to 10 > inches in diameter. The fruit takes up to seven months to ripen. Fibers > from the calabash tree were twisted into twine and ropes. The hard wood > made tools and tool handles. The split wood was woven for sturdy baskets. > But it was the calabash's gourd-like fruit that made the plant truly > useful. Large calabashes were used as bowls and, peculiarly, to disguise > the heads of hunters. > > Raman > -- B. Rathinasabapathy Project Co-ordinator Nilgiri Biosphere Nature Park 1388, Avinashi Road Peelamedu Coimbatore-641004 <http://mail.google.com/subscribe.mhtml>
