Cansaboca

Description

Bunchosia armeniaca is a species in the family Malpighiaceae native to northwestern South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil and Perú).Common names include cansaboca, ciruela de fraile, guaimaro, indano and cold-earth mamey. Bunchosia armeniaca can attain a height of 20 meters, but it commonly grows to 5 meters. It can be found between 100–2600 m of elevation in a wide range of ecological habitats. Bunchosia armeniaca yields a fruit that is very sweet and with cloying red pulp, which adheres strongly to the seeds, hence the Spanish etymology cansaboca (tired mouth). The two seeds in each berry are poisonous. Due to rapid spoilage on the tree, the fruit are often harvested while still a creamy-green and ripened to a red colour indoors. Bunchosia is a genus in the Malpighiaceae, a family of about 75 genera of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales. It contains roughly 75 species of trees and shrubs, which are native to dry woodlands, savannas, and wet forests. Their range extends from Mexico and the Caribbean to southeastern Brazil and adjacent Argentina. Bunchosia is one of three arborescent genera of Malpighiaceae with fleshy, bird-dispersed fruits.