Description

• Jamaica Cherry is a very fast-growing tree of slender proportions, reaching 25 to 40 ft in height, with spreading, nearly horizontal branches.
• The leaves are evergreen, alternate, lanceolate or ovate, long pointed at the apex, oblique at the base.
• The flowers with 5 green sepals and 5 white petals and many prominent yellow stamens last only one day, the petals falling in the afternoon. Flowers resemble strawberry bloom, hence the common name, Strawberry tree.
• The abundant fruits are round, 1-1.25 cm wide, with red or sometimes yellow, smooth, thin, tender skin and light-brown, soft, juicy pulp, with very sweet, musky, somewhat fig-like flavour, filled with exceedingly minute, yellowish seeds, too fine to be noticed in eating.
• . Wherever it grows, fruits are borne nearly all year. The leaf infusion is drunk as a tea-like beverage. Fruits contain hundreds of tiny seeds.

Uses

• The flowers are said to possess antiseptic properties.
• An infusion of the flowers is valued as an antispasmodic.
• It is taken to relieve headache and the first symptoms of a cold.