Graham's Island

I have posted photos of the flower of the cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis) before (here, here, and here). But the flowers aren’t what gives the tree its name. It’s the woody cannonballs that are its fruit.

In these photos, a cannonball tree is loaded with fruit. The flowers, and subsequent fruits, grow directly off the trunk. And the fruit itself, well it’s not hard to see why it gets its name. When the fruit falls from the tree it usually breaks open. The pulp and seeds are eaten by animals which go on to disperse the seeds.