Averrhoa Carambola
This tree, which is said to have been named after Averrhoes, an Arabian physician, is a native of Insular India, and is much cultivated in India and China. It is evergreen, with dense foliage, and grows to a height of from 15 to 20 feet. It is easily propagated from seeds, and fruits in about three years. In Hawaii it bears one crop annually, the flowers appearing in July and the fruit in November and December. The leaves are alternate, odd-pinnate. The flowers, which are borne in clusters on the naked stems and branches, are minute, fragrant, and in color shading from a pale pink to a deep purplish-red. The fruit, varying in size from a hen’s egg to an orange, is ovate, and has five acutely-angled longitudinal ribs. The fragrant, light-yellow skin is very thin, and the pulp is watery; it contains a number of flat, brown seeds. This fruit is of two varieties: the sweet, which may be eaten raw, and the acid which is delicious when preserved. A very appetizing pickle may be made from the half-ripe fruit of the acid variety.