Star Fruit

Star Fruit

Family: Oxalidaceae

Characteristic features:

Habit : A small evergreen tree or shrub ,grows up to an average height of 5 - 12 m, with pink to red purple flowers.

Leaves : The compound leaves are soft, medium green, spirally arranged around the branches in an alternated fashion. The pinnate leaves have a single terminal leaflet and 5 - 11 nearly opposite leaflets, each leaf is about 15 - 20 cm long. The leaflets are ovate or ovate oblong in shape. The top side is smooth and undersides are finely hairy and whitish.

Flowers : The flowers are small and bell shaped, with five petals that have whitish edges.

Fruits :The fruits are oblong, star shaped with five prominent ridges about 7 - 15 cm long and 9 cm wide. The fruits have a thin, waxy skin that is orange yellow colour. The juicy fruit is yellow inside when ripe with about 12 seeds which are flat, thin and brown