I found this tree during my visit to the Sabah Agriculture Park,Tenom last wednesday... it is a unique tree with a unique name:CanonBall.. the tree is quite high and the flowers are pretty in pink/purplish... u guys can read a few infos i found tru googling below... for me this was my 1st time seeing this tree and i was amazed..
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~The cannon ball tree is one of the more spectacular South American trees to be planted in subtropical and tropical botanical gardens throughout the world. This magnifient tree can be seen in cultivation at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables, Florida. The species was given the name Couroupita guianensis in 1775 by the French botanist J. F. Aublet and is a member of the Brazil nut family. The cannon ball tree is planted in gardens because the flowers are large, beautiful, pleasantly aromatic, and unlike any other flower a newcomer to the tropics has ever seen. Even the fruits are a botanical curiosity because they are in the shape and size of cannon balls that, like the flowers, arise from the trunk of the tree. In contrast to the flowers, they release a foetid aroma when they hit the ground and break open.
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The cannon-ball like fruits (Figs. 2, 3) of C. guianensis fall from the tree at maturity and often crack open upon hitting the ground. The seeds are embedded in a six-segmented, fleshy pulp that oxidizes bluish-green and emits an unpleasant aroma when exposed to the air. Peccaries and domestic animals, such as chickens and pigs, are reported to eat the pulp and in so doing swallow the seeds. Observation of a tree under which the ground was covered by many fruits revealed that they remained untouched until a herd of peccaries passed by and broke open the fruits and consumed the pulp. Presumably the peccaries pass the seeds in their feces and some of the seeds germinate. The seeds of species of Couroupita have hairs on their seed coat which may protect them from digestive juices and facilitate their passage through the digestive tracts of animals.
Read more -->HERE
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The cannon-ball like fruits (Figs. 2, 3) of C. guianensis fall from the tree at maturity and often crack open upon hitting the ground. The seeds are embedded in a six-segmented, fleshy pulp that oxidizes bluish-green and emits an unpleasant aroma when exposed to the air. Peccaries and domestic animals, such as chickens and pigs, are reported to eat the pulp and in so doing swallow the seeds. Observation of a tree under which the ground was covered by many fruits revealed that they remained untouched until a herd of peccaries passed by and broke open the fruits and consumed the pulp. Presumably the peccaries pass the seeds in their feces and some of the seeds germinate. The seeds of species of Couroupita have hairs on their seed coat which may protect them from digestive juices and facilitate their passage through the digestive tracts of animals.
Read more -->HERE
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