MISCELLANEOUS FRUITS 



429 



THE CARAMBOLA (Fig. 55) 

 (Averrhoa Carambola, L.) 



"There is another fruit called Carambola," wrote the Dutch 

 traveler Linschoten in 1598, "which hath 8 corners, as bigge 

 as a smal aple, sower in eating, like unripe plums, and most 

 used to make Con- 

 serues." The Chinese 

 and the Hindus eat the 

 carambola when green 

 as a vegetable, when 

 ripe as a dessert. It is 

 widely distributed in 

 the tropics, but in 

 America it is not so 

 highly esteemed as in 

 the Orient. 



The tree is small, 

 handsome, and grows 

 up to 30 feet in height. 

 It has compound leaves 

 composed of two to five 

 pau*s of ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate leaflets, 

 rounded at the base and 

 acute to acuminate at 

 the apex, H to 3 inches 

 long, glabrous, light 

 green above and glau- 

 cous below. The small 



white or purplish flowers are borne in short racemes from the 

 bark of the young and old branches. The petals are five ; the 

 stamens ten, but five are without anthers. The fruit is oval or 

 elliptic in outline, translucent yellow or pale golden brown in 



FIG. 55. A flowering and fruiting branch of 

 carambola (Averrhoa Carambola), an Asiatic 

 fruit sometimes cultivated in tropical America. 



