What flower is this?

November 22nd, 2007 by Nick Tay

Updated!
The Cannonball Tree (Couroupita guianensis) is an evergreen tree allied to the Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa), native of tropical northern South America, tropical America and the southern Caribbean.

It grows to 30-35m tall, with leaves in whorls on the ends of the shoots. The flowers, which are borne only on special stems on the main trunk, are orange, scarlet or pink forming racemes up to 3 m long. They mature into large spherical woody fruit 15-24 cm diameter, containing numerous (200-300) seeds. The pulp of the fruits oxidizes bluish, and has an unpleasant smell.

Like coconut palms, the trees should not be planted near paths or near traffic filled areas, as the heavy nut is known to fall without notice.

The trees are grown extensively in Shiva temples in India. It is called the ‘nagalingam’ tree in Tamil. The flowers are called ‘Shivalinga flowers’, ‘Nagamalli flowers’ or ‘Mallikarjuna flowers’ in Telugu. It is considered a sacred tree among Hindus because the flower resembles a nagam or a sacred snake on the central large shiva lingam and numerous shivalingams around.

On this day in History..

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3 Responses to “What flower is this?”

  1. lee Says:

    is it growing out from the lower trunk of a tree?if it does its a couroupita guianensis..cannonball tree they call it..it can be found in the tropics..nice shots!

  2. Ndmervin Says:

    No offense but it looks like a certain female genitalia… :P

  3. the-reflector Says:

    Lee : Your right! Tnanks soo much

    Ndmervin : Err…does it really?

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