Common Name |
Wood apple |
Description |
Limonia acidissima is a small, deciduous tree up to 12 m tall, with numerous, slender branches armed with sharp, straight spines to 4 cm long. Leaves up to 12 cm long, imparipinnate with narrowly winged rachis and petiole; leaflets opposite in 2-3 pairs and a terminal one, obovate, up to 4 cm long, dotted with oil glands and faintly aromatic when crushed. Fruit a hard-shelled, globose berry, up to 10 cm diameter, with whitish scurfy surface and filled with a pinkish, aromatic pulp containing numerous, slimy seeds.
Wood apple, like the bael and species of Feroniella Swingle, thrives in a monsoon or seasonally dry tropical climate. It grows to an elevation of 450 m in the western Himalaya where it is native. In Malaysia and Indonesia, trees are predominantly cultivated in the coastal regions. It is drought-tolerant and best adapted to light soils |
Products |
Food : Wood apple fruit can be eaten plain or mixed into a variety of beverages and desserts or preserved as jam.
Timber is employed in the construction of houses, posts, and agricultural tools. Gum collected from the bark is said to have medicinal value and is used as a substitute for gum arabic. |
