Page 304 - FRUTAS DEL TRÓPICO

304 Frutas del trópico

3. Upright to spreading growth habit. The canopy may be globose to oblong in shape.

4. Carambola have compound leaves with 6-12 leaflets per leaf.

5. Carambola flowers are borne on panicles on twigs, small diameter branches, and occasionally

on larger wood.

6. Flowers are perfect, small, pink to lavender in color, and have 5 petals and sepals.

Fruit description

1. The fruit is a 4 to 5-celled berry with 0 to 12 edible seeds.

2. Fruit range in size from 2 to 6 inches with 4 to 8 ribs; cut in cross section the fruit has a star

shape.

3. The fruit skin is edible, smooth, and waxy.

4. The fruit flesh is juicy, light to dark yellow in color, crisp, and without fiber. Desirable cultivars

have an agreeable subacid to sweet flavor.

Carambola pollination

All the flowers of a given carambola cultivar have either long or short styles.

Some carambola cultivars may require cross pollination (e.g., B-10, B-17) for good fruit

set and yields. However, many set sufficient fruit for commercial crops. The cultivars ‘Arkin’,
‘Kary’, and ‘Fwang Tung’ are known to set sufficient fruit without cross pollination.

Long and short style carambola types

Each carambola cultivar or seedling displays a consistent stylar morphology –long or short.

This is believed to be a mechanism to favor out crossing.

Carambola are insect pollinated (bees, wasps, flies). The degree of self-incompatibility

varies with the carambola clone or seedling and ranges from requiring cross pollination to not

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