The Cannonball Tree Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_001_5007 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_002_7447 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_003_1147 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_006_4896 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051025_017_5641 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051025_015_6864 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051025_018_9645 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_018_2285 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_024_8652 2005-11-01-cannonball/20051101_034_4037 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> This tree, which can be seen in many parts of Rio de Janeiro is one of the strangest things around. The campus of Rio's Federal University (UFRJ) on Fundão Island had a large grove of those trees and last week I took some time to photograph them. It is a large tree covered with fruits about 10-15 cm in diameter. The fruits are hard, but supposedly have soft white meat inside, which, according to one website, "is edible and sometimes eaten." Eating it is in uncommon, they say, because it smells bad. I have never seen the insides intact, however, since it rots quickly once the fruit falls on the ground. I saw it first two years ago and asked people then what it was. Most people either called it "fruta pão" or said they didn't know what it was. It wasn't actually the bread fruit, however, which [looks quite different](http://images.google.com.br/images?q=breadfruit). I wouldn't have known what it was, if not for a visitor to this website who left a comment on my 2004 picture and told me this was "abricó de macaco" (monkey's apricot). After I did a search for "abricó de macaco" I learned that this was "couroupita guianensis", alternatively called "castanha de macaco" (monkey nut) Portuguese and "cannonball tree" in English. I also learned that according to Globo (one of Brazil's main larger newspapers) "the heavy fruits of abricó-de-macaco can cause accidents when the plant is used in landscaping." No kidding - if one of those things fell on Newton's head we probably wouldn't have the theory of gravity. Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Page Content Template Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Guru Fields Templates Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here save preview cancel
