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Cannon balls on trees?
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The flowers of the Cannon Ball Tree are heavily scented and appear in shades of red, yellow, pink, cream and white
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The Cannon Ball Tree is called Nagalingam in Tamil
COUROUPITA GUIANENSIS, a native of Guiana (Tropical America) belongs to the family Lecythidaceae. Popularly known as Nagalingam to the Tamils, the flower has stamens and ovary resembling a many-headed cobra brooding over a lingam and is, therefore, offered to deities during worship. The tree appears weird - like a tangle of long, woody branches, bearing fleshy flowers. Massive, globular fruits cascade from the trunk (Cauliflory).
Riot of colour
The flowers are heavily scented and appear in a riot of colour — red, yellow, pink, cream and white. The six, thick petals are concave and within them lies a circle of barren stamens without pollen and fertile stamens with pollen. This odd arrangement ensures self-pollination if insect pollination fails.
Massive globular fruits cascade from the trunk
The globose fruits resemble big, rusty cannon balls and hence the popular name `Cannon Ball Tree.' The fruits take eight to nine months to ripen and contain a mass of sour-smelling yellow pulp which is acrid.
The IUCN Red Data book lists the Cannon Ball Tree in the Lower Risk (LR) category of endangered plants.
PAULINE DEBORAH & RIDLING WALLER
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