Crescentia cujete

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Asterids
Cladus: Lamiids
Ordo: Lamiales

Familia: Bignoniaceae
Tribus: Crescentieae
Genus: Crescentia
Species: Crescentia cujete
Name

Crescentia cujete L.
Synonyms

Heterotypic
Crescentia acuminata Kunth in F.W.H.von Humboldt, A.J.A.Bonpland & C.S.Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. Pl. 3: 57 (1818 publ. 1819).
Crescentia arborea Raf., Sylva Tellur.: 81 (1838).
Crescentia latifolia Raf., Sylva Tellur.: 81 (1838), nom. illeg.
Crescentia pumila Raf., Sylva Tellur.: 81 (1838).
Crescentia cuneifolia Gardner, J. Bot. (Hooker) 2: 422 (1840).
Crescentia angustifolia Willd. ex Seem., Trans. Linn. Soc. London 23: 20 (1860), pro syn.
Crescentia fasciculata Miers, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 26: 171 (1868).
Crescentia plectantha Miers, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 26: 170 (1868).
Crescentia spathulata Miers, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 26: 173 (1868).
Crescentia cujete var. puberula Bureau & K.Schum. in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 8(2): 403 (1897).

Distribution
Native distribution areas:

Continental: Southern America
Bahamas, Cayman Isl., Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Virgin Isl. (Guana, Jost van Dyke, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola, Virgin Gorda), Lesser Antilles (Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Grenadines, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Saba, St. Barthelemy, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Vincent), Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Isla Margarita, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia (Amazonas, Antioquia, Atlntico, Bolvar, Boyac, Casanare, Cesar, Choc, Cundinamarca, Huila, La Guajira, Magdalena, Meta, Nario, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Quindo, Santander, Sucre, Tolima, Valle), Venezuela (Amazonas, Apure, Aragua, Bolivar, Carabobo, Delta Amacuro, Distrito Federal, Falcon, Guarico, Lara, Merida, Miranda, Monagas, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre, Tachira, Yaracuy, Zulia)
Continental: Northern America
Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatan)

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References

Linnaeus, C. 1753. Species Plantarum. Tomus II: 626. Reference page.

Links

Hassler, M. 2019. Crescentia cujete. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2019. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published online. Accessed: 2019 Apr. 29. Reference page.
Govaerts, R. et al. 2019. Crescentia cujete in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2019 Apr. 29. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2019. Crescentia cujete. Published online. Accessed: Apr. 29 2019.
The Plant List 2013. Crescentia cujete in The Plant List Version 1.1. Published online. Accessed: 2019 Apr. 29.
Tropicos.org 2019. Crescentia cujete. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 29 Apr. 2019.
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Crescentia cujete in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed: 07-Oct-06.

Vernacular names
bamanankan: Filenjiri
Deutsch: Kalebassenbaum
English: Calabash
español: Guïra, Guira cimarrona, Guira comun, Guira de vaca, Guira jia, Guira larga, Guira redonda
suomi: Kulhokalebassipuu, kalebassipuu
français: Calebassier
മലയാളം: കമണ്ഡലു മരം
português: Calabaça, cuieira, cabaceira, árvore-de-cuia, cuitê, cuité, coité
Türkçe: Kalabaş ağacı
Tiếng Việt: Đào tiên cz=Kujeta

Crescentia cujete, commonly known as the calabash tree, is a species of flowering plant that is grown in Africa, Central America, South America, the West Indies and extreme southern Florida.[1] It is the national tree of St. Lucia. It is a dicotyledonous plant with simple leaves, which are alternate or in fascicles (clusters) on short shoots.[2] It is naturalized in India.[3] The tree shares its common name with that of the vine calabash, or bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria).[1]

In Cuba, this tree is known to grow in both disturbed habitat and areas of poor drainage. It can grow up to 10 meters tall.[4]

Uses
Caribbean

A calabash is primarily used to make utensils such as cups, bowls, and basins in rural areas. It can be used for carrying water, or for transporting fish, when fishing. In some Caribbean countries, it is worked, painted, and decorated and turned into items by artisans, and sold to tourists.

As a cup, bowl, or even a water-pipe or "bong", the calabash is considered consistent with the "Ital" or vital lifestyle of not using refined products such as table salt, or modern cooking methods, such as microwave ovens. In Haiti, the plant is called kalbas kouran, literally, "running calabash", and is used to make the sacred rattle emblematic of the Vodou priesthood, called an asson. As such, the plant is highly respected. It is the national tree of St. Lucia. In Cuba, the dried fruit is commonly used as a coffee cup by rural farmers.[4] In Dominican Republic, the plant is called the higüero tree and it is popularly used to make decorative objects and ornaments, though historically it has been used in all sorts of ways.[5]
Costa Rica

The Costa Rican town of Santa Bárbara de Santa Cruz holds a traditional annual dance of the calabashes (baile de los guacales). Since 2000, the activity has been considered of cultural interest to the community, and all participants receive a hand-painted calabash vessel to thank them for their economic contribution (which they paid in the form of an entrance ticket).[6]

Native Americans throughout the country traditionally serve chicha in calabash vessels to the participants of special events such as the baile de los diablitos (dance of the little fiends - literally, dance of the little devils).[7]
Mexico

In many rural parts of Mexico, the calabash is dried and carved hollow to create a bule or a guaje, a gourd used to carry water around like a canteen. The jícara fruit is cut in half, which gave the parallel name to a clay cup also called jícara. These jícaras can also be used for serving or drinking.
Brazil

Bowls made of calabash were used by Brazilians as utensils made to serve food, and the practice is still retained in some remote areas of Brazil (originally by populations of various ethnicities, origins and regions, but nowadays mainly by Native Americans). The fruit are also commonly used in Brazil as the resonator for the berimbau, the signature instrument of capoeira, a martial art/dance developed in Brazilian plantations by enslaved Africans.
Colombia

In Colombia, the dried fruit is halved and then partially filled with either stones, beads, seeds, broken glass or a combination and is then used to keep the rhythm in bullerengue music. The dried fruit are filled with certain seeds and a handle is made to make maracas in multiple Latin American countries (especially Colombia and Cuba).
Berimbau, musical instrument in Brazil: The fruit functions as a resonator.
Africa

In Western and Southern Africa it is also used for decoration and musical instruments. Calabash bowls are also widely used by women working as artisanal gold miners, to 'pan for' & recover fine grains of gold.
References

"Calabash tree | Description, Uses, & Facts".
GENTRY, A.H. 1996. A field guide to the families and genera of woody plants of northwest South America (Columbia, Ecuador, Peru), with supplementary notes on herbaceous taxa. University of Chicago Press. p. 265.
Pharmacographia Indica page 40
Cuba y sus árboles. Fernández Zequeira, Maira., Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática (Academia de Ciencias de Cuba). La Habana: Editorial Academia. 1999. ISBN 9590202527. OCLC 44573671.
"Dominican Higüero Gourds". Extreme Hotels Cabarete. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
"Baile del Guacal" [Dance of the Calabash]. La Nación (in Spanish). 1 July 2010.
Parrales, Freddy (29 January 2011). "Rey Curré se encendió con el baile de los diablitos" [Rey Curré was ignited with the dance of the little fiends]. La Nación (in Spanish).