Muntingia

Muntingia calabura, the sole species in the genus Muntingia, is a flowering plant native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and western South America south to Peru and Bolivia. Common names include (English) Jamaican cherry, Panama berry, Singapore cherry, Strawberry tree; (Spanish) bolaina yamanaza, cacaniqua, capulín blanco, nigua, niguito, memizo or memiso; and (Filipino) aratilis, aratiles, manzanitas.

It is a small tree 7-12 meters tall with tiered and slightly drooping branches. It has serrated leaves 2.5-15 cm long and 1-6.5 cm wide. The flowers are small and white and gives rise to 1-1.5 cm light red fruit. The fruit is edible, sweet and juicy, and contains a large number of tiny (0.5 mm) yellow seeds.

It is a pioneer species that thrives in poor soil, able to tolerate acidic and alkaline conditions and drought. Its seeds are dispersed by birds and fruit bats. It is cultivated for its edible fruit, and has become naturalised in some other parts of the tropics, including southeastern Asia. As a pioneer plant, it could help condition the soil and make it habitable to other plants. However, it might also be considered as an invasive species since it might out-compete indigenous plants.

Uses

In Mexico, the fruits are eaten and sold in markets. The fruits can be processed into jams and the leaves can be used for making tea. In Brazil, the trees are planted along river banks. The fruits falling from the tree attract fish that are then caught. In the Philippines the fruits are usually eaten mostly by children although it is not sold in markets.

In traditional medicine, its flowers can be used as an antiseptic and treat abdominal cramps.

The timber from the Jamaican cherry is reddish-brown. It is compact, durable and lightweight and can be used for carpentry. It could also be used as firewood. The bark can be used to produce ropes. Due to its ability to grow in poor soil and its effective propagation by means of bats and birds, it could be used for reforestation projects.

In India, it is used in urban gardens for its ability to grow fast and attractiveness to small fruit eating birds such as the flowerpeckers. It is also commonly planted in parking lots.

Habitat

Usually , Malaysia has a bunch of fertility of this plant. The plants grow well there with a good rate of sun. Malaysia called this "Ceri Kampung" or village cherry. This cherries were usually grown in street and row of houses. In Malaysia , there's no shop that sells this cherries because if they would like , they could pluck it. Children usually climb and take a tub of these malay cherries. However , some country did sell the pack of this cherries. The country usually are cold , and rarely exceed summers. They sell the pack of this cherries in boxes with the high prices. '

Taste

These cherries are very sweet. The sweetness brings with it an excellent taste, because it has a lovely fragrance that makes people keep on eating them. These cherries are often eaten by children because they taste quite like cotton candy. They are just delicious.

Growing

This is a fast growing fruit tree. It rarely stops growing. After the flowers are pollinated, there will be lots of the berries growing. Once they ripen, the flowers start to bloom again. After one crop of berries is harvested, the flowers will pollinate back into fruit. The fruit tree will grow for many years.