Species
+

Couroupita guianensis Aubl.

Cannonball Tree, Cannonball Tree (EN); Jumbie Calabash, Moke, Taparon (Trinidad & Tobago); Bola de Canon (ES)

Climate known 50 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Couroupita guianensis, known by a variety of common names including Salakalyana and cannonball tree, is a deciduous tree in the flowering plant family Lecythidaceae. It is native to lowland tropical rainforests of Central and South America, from Costa Rica, south to Brazil and northern Bolivia and it is cultivated in many other tropical areas throughout the world because of its fragrant flowers and large fruit, which are brownish grey. There are potential medicinal uses for many parts of Couroupita guianensis, and the tree has cultural and religious significance in South and Southeast Asia. In Sri Lanka and India, the cannonball tree has been widely misidentified as the Sal tree, after its introduction to the island by the British in 1881, and has been included as a common item in Buddhist temples as a result.

Text from Wikipedia, “Couroupita guianensis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Couroupita

Couroupita is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lecythidaceae first described as a genus in 1775. It is native to tropical South America and Central America.SpeciesCouroupita guianensis - Cannonball tree -Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador east to Amapá and south to Bolivia; naturalized in the West Indies as well as in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Andaman & Nicobar Couroupita nicaraguarensis – Bala de cañón, coco de mono, paraíso, zapote de mico, or zapote de mono -Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama Couroupita subsessilis - northern Brazil, northern Peru

Text from Wikipedia, “Couroupita”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lecythidaceae
Described by
Aubl.
Native to
Panama, French Guiana, Guyana +7
Wild records
478 in range· 225 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Oct, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2605mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 291 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2605 mm a year, wettest May at 291 mm, driest January at 137 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Couratari pedicellaris Rizzini; Couroupita acreensis R.Knuth; Couroupita antillana Miers; Couroupita froesii R.Knuth; Couroupita guianensis var. surinamensis (Mart. ex Berg) Eyma and 10 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1935 mm of 2605 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2605 mm a year, wettest May at 291 mm, driest January at 137 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2605 mm a year at the habitat, 1935 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month May at 291 mm, driest January at 137 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1498 mm to 3965 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 18.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.9 °C, the absolute minimum 16.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 17.6 °C to 23.7 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jun to 29 °C in Oct; mean night from 21 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2605 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 297 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°40°38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–34RH 65–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 297 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 25–3129 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–3028 / 25–2928 / 25–2928 / 25–3029 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3029 / 25–30
Night °C22 / 18–2423 / 18–2423 / 18–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2421 / 18–2421 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–24
Rain mm137 / 25–344162 / 41–314233 / 38–330269 / 96–454291 / 95–499270 / 43–464222 / 31–409192 / 42–350204 / 69–346224 / 98–371222 / 121–353179 / 71–329
DLI32 / 29–3632 / 29–3632 / 29–3829 / 27–3628 / 25–3327 / 23–3429 / 24–3532 / 28–3734 / 30–3933 / 29–3731 / 27–3431 / 28–34
RH %66 / 55–7065 / 55–7066 / 58–7168 / 62–7268 / 64–7268 / 64–7367 / 62–7266 / 61–7266 / 61–7267 / 63–7168 / 63–7267 / 60–70

Each figure is the median across the 297 grid cells holding the 463 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1658:2281 (7.075, -65.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 297 distinct grid cells holding the 463 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1658:2281 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_-65.625, lapse-corrected +64 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 239 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativePanama, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North· introduced: Bangladesh, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Marshall Is., Florida, Costa Rica, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Brazil Southeast
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker3.456, -76.533 · in the densest population, 217 records (45% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 478 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 225 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 250 km away. 932 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 478 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Couroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensisCouroupita guianensis

Photographs: (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Prashanth N S, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Siva Naturewild, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Couroupita guianensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Using Cannonball Leaves and Their Cytotoxic Activity against MCF-7 Cell Line
Preetha Devaraj, Prachi Kumari, Chirom Aarti, Arun Renganathan (2013) · Journal of Nanotechnology
Green synthesis of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles using Couroupita guianensis Aubl. fruit extract for their antibacterial and cytotoxicity activities
Gnanasekar Sathishkumar, V. Logeshwaran, Subburayan Sarathbabu, Pradeep K. Jha (2017) · Artificial Cells Nanomedicine and Biotechnology
The structure and properties of some indolic constituents in Couroupita guianensis aubl
Jan Bergman, Jan-Olof Lindström, Ulf Tilstam (1985) · Tetrahedron
Cannonball fruit (Couroupita guianensis, Aubl.) extract mediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles and evaluation of its antioxidant activity
Gnanasekar Sathishkumar, Pradeep K. Jha, V. Vignesh, Rajkuberan Chandrasekaran (2015) · Journal of Molecular Liquids
Multipurpose effectiveness of Couroupita guianensis-synthesized gold nanoparticles: high antiplasmodial potential, field efficacy against malaria vectors and synergy with Aplocheilus lineatus predators
Jayapal Subramaniam, Kadarkarai Murugan, Chellasamy Panneerselvam, Kalimuthu Kovendan (2016) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Evaluation of antiplasmodial activity of medicinal plants from North Indian Buchpora and South Indian Eastern Ghats
Naveen Kumar Kaushik, Asokan Bagavan, Abdul Abdul Rahuman, Abdul Abduz Zahir (2015) · Malaria Journal
Facile biosynthesis of antimicrobial zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflakes using leaf extract of Couroupita guianensis Aubl .
Gnanasekar Sathishkumar, C. Rajkuberan, K. Manikandan, S. Prabukumar (2016) · Materials Letters
Target and non-target toxicity of botanical insecticide derived from Couroupita guianensis L. flower against generalist herbivore, Spodoptera litura Fab. and an earthworm, Eisenia foetida Savigny
Athirstam Ponsankar, Prabhakaran Vasantha‐Srinivasan, Sengottayan Senthil‐Nathan, Annamalai Thanigaivel (2016) · Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Optimization of reaction conditions to fabricate nano-silver using Couroupita guianensis Aubl. (leaf & fruit) and its enhanced larvicidal effect
R.T.V. Vimala, Gnanasekar Sathishkumar, S. Sivaramakrishnan (2014) · Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Antinociceptive activity of fractions from Couroupita guianensis Aubl. leaves
Mariana Martins Gomes Pinheiro, Sidnei O. Bessa, Catharina Eccard Fingolo, Ricardo Machado Kuster (2009) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 88 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.