PlantPeers
Back to Catalog
Crescentia cujete
Bignoniaceae FAMILY Least Concern

Crescentia cujete

Crescentia cujete

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The pulp of the fruit is poisonous[1]. The seeds are poisonous[2].

Cultivation Details

HabitDeciduous Tree
GrowthSlow

A plant of the lowland tropics. Prefers a fertile, moist soil in a sunny position[1]. Established plants are very drought tolerant[2]. Plants do not flower until they are quite large[3], then they can flower all year round[2]. The flowers emit a pungent, musky, cabbage scent in the evenings[2]. The large fruits have nectaries that are believed to attract stinging ants. These ants then ward off herbivores such as goats[2]. The trees seem to afford a particularly good habitat for epiphytes, and in the wild they often are covered with orchids, bromeliads, and other plants[2, 4]. Blocks of the wood, used for mounting epiphytic plants, are sold commercially[2].

Propagation

Seed - Air-layering. Cuttings. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Crescentia+cujete>

Pollinators

Bats

References

  1. [1]Tropical Ornamentals; A Guide — Whistler. W. Arthur. · Timber Press Inc. Oregon. · 2000 · ISBN 0-88192-448-2 ↩︎An excellent little guide to some of the more commonly cultivated ornamental plants of the Tropics, often giving some information on the plants other uses.
  2. [2]Tropical and Subtropical Trees - A Worldwide Encyclopaedic Guide. — Barwick. M. · Thames & Hudson, London · 2004 · ISBN 0-500-51181-0 ↩︎A superb book, very concise and well written, giving a wealth of information on 400 or more species including descriptions, habitat, cultivation details and plant uses. A wealth of colour photographs bring each plant vividly to life.
  3. [3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  4. [4]Flora of Guatemala — Standley P.C. & J. A. Steyermark · 1946 - 1976 · http://www.archive.org/ ↩︎A superb reference, though somewhat dated. Gives lots of plant uses as well as information on plant habit and habitat. The entire flora (13 volumes) can now be downloaded from http://www.archive.org/
  5. [5]Bignoniaceae Part 1 (Crescentieae and Tourrettieae) — Gentry A.H. · The New York Botanical Garden, New York · 1980 · ISBN 0-89327-222-1 ↩︎
  6. [6]IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — http://www.iucnredlist.org/ ↩︎A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat.
  7. [7]Flowering Plants of Jamaica — Adams. C.D. · University of the West Indies; Jamaica. · 1972 ↩︎A terse treatment of the flowering plants of Jamaica, with a botanical description of each plant, notes on habitat etc.
  8. [8]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  9. [9]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  10. [10]Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden Vol. 79 — van der Werff H. (Editor) · Missouri Botanical Garden; St. Louis. · 1992 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org · ISBN 0026-6493 ↩︎A botanical journal, it includes an article on the ethnobotanical uses of the plant family Bignoniaceae. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
  11. [11]Medicinal Plants of the Guianas — DeFilipps, R. A.; Maina, S. L.; & Crepin, J. · Smithsonian Museum · http://botany.si.edu/bdg/medicinal/index.html ↩︎A down-loadable PDF document of a book in pre-publication awaiting illustration. An excellent, if rather terse, guide to the traditional medicinal uses of the plants of the region
  12. [12]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
  13. [13]Medicinal Plants of the Andes and the Amazon: The magic and medicinal flora of Northern Peru — Bussmann R.W. & Sharon D. · 2015 · ISBN 10:0-9960231-2-7 ↩︎An introduction to traditional herbalism in Peru plus brief information on the medicinal uses of
  14. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎