258 Handbook of herbs and spices
in Thailand, ma fueang. Malayans may refer to it as belimbing batu, belimbing besi,
belimbing pessegi, belimbing sayur, belimbing saji, kambola, caramba, or as ‘star
fruit’. Australians use the descriptive term, five corner; in Guam, it is bilimbines; to
the Chinese, it is yang-táo. Early English travelers called it Chinese or Coromandel
gooseberry or cucumber tree. In Guyana, it is five fingers; in the Dominican Republic,
it is vinagrillo; in Haiti, zibline; in some of the French Antilles, cornichon; in El
Salvador, pepino de la India; in Surinam, blimbing legi or fransman-birambi; Costa
Rica, tiriguro; in Brazil, camerunga or caramboleiro, or limas de Cayena; in Mexico,
carambolera or caramboler or árbol de pepino; in Trinidad coolie tamarind and in
Venezuela it is called tamarindo chino or tamarindo dulce.
14.2 Description......................................................................................
Carambola is a small tree with attractive foliage, produces large quantities of fruit
and is ideal for the home orchard. It is slow-growing, short-trunked with a much-
branched, bushy, broad, rounded crown and reaches to 6–10 m in height. Its deciduous
leaves are irritable to touch, spirally arranged, are alternate, imparipinnate, 15–20 cm
long, with 5–11 nearly opposite leaflets. Leaflets ovate or ovate-oblong acuminate,
entire, base oblique, short and stout petioled, 3–9 cm long; soft, medium-green, and
smooth on the upper surface, finely hairy and whitish on the underside. The leaflets
are sensitive to light and more or less inclined to fold together at night or when the
tree is shaken or abruptly shocked.
Small clusters of red-stalked, lilac, purple-streaked, downy fragrant flowers, about
6 mm wide, are borne in clusters in axils of leaves (short axillary racemes) on young
branches, or on older branches without leaves on the twigs. There are several flushes
of bloom throughout the year. The showy ovoid, oblong or ellipsoid, longitudinally
(five) (rarely four or six) angled fruits, 6–15 cm long and up to 9 cm wide, have thin,
waxy cuticle, orange-yellow skin and juicy, crisp, yellow translucent juicy flesh
when fully ripe (Fig. 14.2). Slices cut in cross-section have the form of a star (Fig.
14.1). The fruit is a berry and has a more or less pronounced oxalic acid odor and the
flavor ranges from very sour to mildly sweetish. The so-called ‘sweet’ types rarely
contain more than 4% sugar. There may be up to 12 flat, thin, brown seeds 6–12 mm
long or none at all. Seeds lose viability in a few days after removal from fruit. Seeds
number 8–10, are arillate, and compressed yellow to light brown in colour. Ovule and
seed development have been studied (Govil and Kaur, 1989). Chattopadhyay and
Ghosh (1994) have elaborated the changes in mineral composition of inflorescence
and developing carambola fruit. Salakpetch et al. (1990) have suggested that the
flowering of carambola is influenced by cultivar and water stress than by diurnal
temperature variation and photoperiod after conducting day/night temperature,
photoperiod and soil water stress experiments with cultivars Fwang Tung and Thai
Knight.
14.3 Origin and distribution...................................................................
Averrhoa carambola L. belongs to the family Averrhoaceae. Averrhoa is a genus
of tropical trees. Carambola is believed to have originated in the Moluccas islands