Trees & Plants

Bird’s cherry

Jeymu an

Muntingia calabura L.

Very common as an avenue tree. Also, naturalised in many islands Wood is fine-grained, moderately strong and light in weight and used in general carpentry. Fruits are edible and can be cooked in pies or made into preserves. The leaves make a flavourful tea when steeped in hot wat

Details

§ 01

uses: Wood is fine-grained, moderately strong and light in weight and used in general carpentry. Fruits are edible and can be cooked in pies or made into preserves. The leaves make a flavourful tea when steeped in hot water. The flowers are known to possess antiseptic properties. An infusion of the flower is valued as an antispasmodic which is taken to relieve headache and cold.
family: Elaeocarpaceae
synonym: Muntingia rosea H. Karst.
description: Evergreen trees, to 7 m high; branches spreading; branchlets densely tomentose, glandular-pubescent. Leaves be × simple, alternate, 6-11 2-4 cm, lanceolate Th or oblong-lanceolate, base obliquely subcordate, apex acuminate, margin serrate, to tomentose; lateral nerves 3-5 pairs; petiole of 5 mm long. Flowers 1.5-2.5 cm across, white, rarely pink; pedicels 2-2.5 cm long. Sepals 5, 1.5 cm long, lanceolate, valvate, shortly connate at base, densely pubescent. Petals 5, thin, ovate, obovate or suborbicular, shortly clawed. Stamens many, ca. 1 cm long; filaments filiform. Fruit a berry, 1-1.5 cm across, red or yellow, subglobular; seeds many, obovoid-ellipsoid.
native range: Southern Mexico, tropical America, the Greater Antilles, St. Vincent Insland and Trinidad
distribution: Widely introduced in the tropics.
english names: Bird’s cherry · Cotton candy berry · Jam tree
flowering fruiting: Th roughout the year
occurrence maldives: Very common as an avenue tree. Also, naturalised in many islands