Thursday, March 31, 2016

What is That Large, Cannonball Shaped Fruit in the Tropical Greenhouse?

A picture of the fruiting limbs of Crescentia cujete, the Calabash tree, located in the north section of our tropical greenhouse. . 
Q. I'm a long-time garden member and would like to know the name of the large tree located at the bottom of the greenhouse that has several large and round dark green fruits? hanging on the tree.

A.  That's a Calabash tree. Crescentia cujete. It's in the same family as the glorious pink trumpet trees that you see blooming all around the Arboretum now. The fruit is inedible, but used commonly where the tree is native (Central and South America), or where it has been introduced and naturalized (India). 

See:
http://www.fruitsinfo.com/calabash-tree-tropical-fruits.php
https://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/Crescentia_cujete.htm
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/content/calabash-tree.htm

Thursday, March 24, 2016

What A Spring!

I'm seeing bloom on things like never before. Take this Azalea for instance (snapped this pic last evening). More insane bloom pix tomorrow.
Incredible looking Azalea. 

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Links for Solanum Seeds

Yesterday at plant information class I showed different types of novel Solanum species. After class I was asked to post the links to suppliers of seeds of these plants. Here is a list:


  1. Plant World Seeds
  2. Trade Winds Tropical Fruit
  3. Baker Creek Rare Seeds
  4. Stoke's Seeds (Pumpkin on a Stick)
  5. Terroir Seeds (Galapagos Tomato)

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