Crescentia cujete L., Bignoniaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  Low risk, score: -8 (Go to the risk assessment)

Common name(s): [more details]

English: calabash, calabash tree, gourd tree, hue tree

French: calebassier

Hawaiian: la‘amia

Maori (Cook Islands): kumete, ‘ue

Spanish: botote pilche, calabacero, calabasa, crescencia, guacal, mate, morro

Tahitian: hue tumu ra‘au

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Tree to 10 m tall and 30 cm diameter breast height, the branches usually crooked, the crown open; branchlets mostly lacking, smaller branches thick, subterete, with alternate short-shoot projections each bearing a fascicle of leaves from its center.  Leaves of various sizes within each fascicle, simple, obovate, the tip obtuse to acute, the base attenuate, petiole lacking, 3.4-26 cm long and 1.0-7.6 cm wide, chartaceous to rigid-chartaceous, secondary veins 5-14 on a side, the midvein raised above; lepidote above and beneath, otherwise glabrous above, beneath glabrous or pubescent along midvein with simple and forked trichomes, plate-shaped glands at base of blade beneath, drying grayish-olive.  Inflorescence one or two cauliflorous flowers borne on larger branches or trunk, the pedicels lipidote, 1.5 cm long.  Flowers with a musty odour, calyx bilabiately split to the base, each lobe 1.8-2.6 cm long and 1.3-2.4 cm wide, mostly glabrous with plate-shaped glands on the upper half of lobes, slightly lepidote at base; corolla off-white to yellowish with purplish venation on the lobes and purplish lines on the tube outside, tubular with a transverse fold midway across the lower side of the throat, fleshy, 4.1-7.4 cm long and 3.1-4.5 cm wide at mouth of the tube, the tube 2.8-4.5 cm long, the lobes triangular with the apex extended as a narrow point, 2.5-3.1 cm long, sparsely lepidote or stalked-lepidote on the tube outside and near the mouth of tube inside, more densely so at the level of stamen insertion, papillate-glandular on the lobes outside and sparsely so inside; stamens subexserted, the anther thecae thick, partially divergent, 5-8 mm long and 2.5-3.5 mm wide, the anterior filaments 2.8-3.2 cm long and inserted 6-11 mm from the base of the tube, the posterior filaments 2.8-3.3 cm long, inserted 7-15 mm from base of tube, the staminode 1-3 mm long, inserted 5-11 mm from base of tube; pistil 4.0-4.9 cm long, the ovary rounded conical, 5-7 mm long and 4-7 mm wide, 3-6 mm thick, lepidote, the ovules multi-seriate on 4 placentae; disc annular-pulvinate, 3-4 mm long and 8-11 wide.  Fruit a pepo or calabash, spherical to ovoid-ellipsoid, 13-20 cm in diameter, to 30 cm long, the thin hard shell smooth, lepidote-punctate; seeds small, thin, wingless, 7-8 mm long and 4-6 mm wide, scattered through the pulp of the fruit"  (Gentry, 1977; pp. 55-56).

Habitat/ecology:  In Fiji, "cultivated in gardens and locally naturalized in coconut plantations at elevations up to about 100 m" (Smith, 1991; pp. 142-143).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  "Native range obscure, probably northern Central America" (Gentry, 1977; pp. 55-56).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	Rarotonga Island	introduced cultivated	McCormack, Gerald (2007)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Española Group	Española Island	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Isabela Group	Volcan Sierra Negra	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) San Cristóbal Group	San Cristóbal Island	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Santa Cruz Group	Santa Cruz Island	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)
Fiji Fiji Islands	Vanua Levu Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1991) (pp. 142-143) Voucher cited: DA 17180 Naturalized
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1991) (pp. 142-143) Vouchers cited: Greenwood 777, MacDaniels 1128 Naturalized
French Polynesia Society Islands	Maupiti (Maurua) Island	introduced cultivated	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, M.-H. (1987) (p. 62) Voucher cited: Fosberg 64932 (US)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Raiatea (Havai) Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (p. 49) Vouchers cited: Moore 383, BRY 26108
Guam Guam Island	Guam Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 62)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (p. 22) Vouchers cited: Barrau s.n., MacKee 11898, MacKee 22015
Palau Palau (main island group)	Koror Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1979) (p. 251)
Palau Palau (main island group)	Koror Island	introduced cultivated	Lorence, David H./Flynn, Tim (1998) (p. 20)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Costa Rica Costa Rica	Costa Rica (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native cultivated	Gentry, Alwyn H. (1977) (p. 56)
El Salvador El Salvador	El Salvador (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Guatemala Guatemala	Guatemala (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Honduras Honduras	Honduras (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Mexico Mexico	Mexico (United Mexican States)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Nicaragua Nicaragua	Nicaragua (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Panama Panama	Panama (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)

Comments:  Reported as possibly an invasive plant in the Galápagos Islands per Charles Darwin Research Station.

Additional information:  Additional online information about Crescentia cujete is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Crescentia cujete may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, M.-H. 1987. Flora of Maupiti, Society Islands. The Smithsonian Institution. Atoll Research Bulletin 294:1-70.

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce. 1979. A geographical checklist of the Micronesian dicotyledonae. Micronesica 15:1-295.

Gentry, Alwyn H. 1977. Bignoniaceae [178.]. Flora of Ecuador 7, 173 pp.

Lorence, David H./Flynn, Tim. 1998. Checklist of the plants of Palau. Unpublished checklist. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Hawai‘i. 40 pp.

MacKee, H. S. 1994. Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 164 p.

McCormack, Gerald. 2007. Cook Islands biodiversity and natural heritage. On-line database.

Raulerson, L. 2006. Checklist of Plants of the Mariana Islands. University of Guam Herbarium Contribution 40:1-69. .

Smith, Albert C. 1991. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 5. 626 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2007. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. 1999. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii. Revised edition. Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication. University of Hawai‘i Press/Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. 1919 pp. (two volumes).

Welsh, S. L. 1998. Flora Societensis: A summary revision of the flowering plants of the Society Islands. E.P.S. Inc., Orem, Utah. 420 pp.