Cannonball Tree

The cannonball tree is a deciduous tree up to 35 metres tall, native to the lowland rainforests of Central and South America and grown in many tropical areas for its fragrant flowers and large fruit. Its scented flowers grow in racemes up to 80 centimetres long straight from the trunk, and its spherical woody fruit, up to 25 centimetres across, gives the tree its name; the white flesh turns blue on contact with air. In India and Sri Lanka it has been widely mistaken for the sal tree and so planted at Buddhist temples. Hindus venerate it because its hooded flowers look like the naga over a lingam, and so they grow it at Shiva temples. Theravada Buddhist countries plant it at monasteries.