This remarkable tropical tree is the Cannonball Tree, Couroupita guianensis. It belongs to the Brazil-nut family, Lecythidaceae, and is native to the wet tropical forests of northern South America. It is now grown in tropical gardens around the world because of its extraordinary flowers and enormous fruits.

The tree may grow 50 to 75 feet tall and develop a broad crown, but its most interesting features are found on the trunk rather than among the leaves. Long, woody flowering stems grow directly from the trunk and older branches. This unusual habit is called cauliflory. On mature trees, those stems may cover much of the lower trunk with buds, flowers and developing fruits.

The flowers are large, fragrant and remarkably complex. Their thick petals are usually shades of pink, red and yellow, surrounding a curved structure crowded with stamens. Each flower can look almost like a miniature sculpture. The strong fragrance attracts large bees, which are among the tree’s principal pollinators.

Interestingly, the flowers do not produce nectar. Instead, they offer pollen, and different parts of the flower produce different kinds. Some pollen feeds the visiting bees, while another portion is more effective for fertilizing the next flower they visit.

After pollination, the tree develops the huge spherical fruits that give it its common name. They are brown, hard-shelled and can resemble rusty cannonballs hanging from the trunk. A mature fruit may be eight inches or more across and can take many months to ripen.

When a ripe fruit falls, it may strike the ground with considerable force and split open. For that reason, Cannonball Trees should not be planted over paths, parking areas or places where people regularly gather.

Inside the hard shell is a soft pulp containing hundreds of seeds. The pulp develops a strong and often unpleasant odor when exposed to the air. Wild animals may feed on it and help scatter the seeds, but visitors should not treat it as an ordinary edible fruit.

The Cannonball Tree is therefore a tree of dramatic contrasts: beautiful, sweetly scented flowers growing directly from the trunk, followed by massive fruits filled with foul-smelling pulp.

It is one of those trees that encourages us to look closely. The canopy may appear fairly ordinary, but the trunk reveals an entire sequence of botanical events—buds, elaborate flowers, developing fruits and, eventually, cannonballs.