Cucumber Tree
Thus many cultivars have been bred.
Cucumber tree. It is a tree that tends to occur singly as scattered specimens rather than in groves. Cucumber tree is also usually turned into jams and candies but it may also be eaten raw if you dont mind its really tart flavor which can certainly make you grimace. Cucumber trees have fleshy fruit that are somewhat ovoid with pointy ends.
The bilimbi or cucumber tree is not one fruit tree that you want to grow if you are into sweet dessert fruits. Cucumber tree magnolias Magnolia acuminata are hardy varietals grown more for their foliage than their blooms. This is because the three-inch 8 cm long flowers are yellow-green in hue and tend to blend in with the trees foliage.
What is a Cucumber Tree. Photos courtesy Ken Murray Cucumber tree. Bilimbi Cucumber tree Tree Sorrel.
Cucumber trees grow to be 3 to 6 metres 10 to 20 feet in height and have a large trunk compared to the small canopy. The leaves are ovoid and the flowers are yellowish to greenish. 33 lbsft 3 530 kgm 3 Specific Gravity Basic 12 MC44 53.
Unlike other magnolias the cucumbertree is grown primarily for its foliage rather than its flowers. These trees are stately as adults especially when the lower limbs have been pruned to prevent them from dragging. The fruit matures to a dark red color and is 68 cm long and 4 cm broad with the individual carpels splitting open to release the bright red seeds 10-60 per fruit.
Short straight stout trunk with furrowed gray-brown bark narrow crown and upright to spreading branches. It is native to southern Mexico and several Central American countries but has been introduced elsewhere in cultivation and has escaped in some countries. This tall magnolia makes a fine specimen and shade tree.