Nagalinga Pushpa: Special tree with unusual trunk

At first I thought that there was a vine growing on the Nagalinga Pushpa tree… But then the owner explained that fruit & flowers sprout from the bark of the truck (the botanical term is “cauliflorus”) . It makes huge fruit but people and monkeys don’t eat them — the owner thought the fruits were quite useless and rather a chore. But it looks completely surreal and the flowers smell nice.  Apparently, it’s quite rare.

I looked it up to learn more. Officially it is known as, “Couroupita guianensis” and it is apparently called the “Cannonball Tree”, too.  I read that when it grows next to side walks and pathways, there are often warning signs to caution passers by about the possibility of dangerous, falling fruit.   While the flower is beautifully fragrant, the fruit isn’t. It seems to have a rather awful odor when exposed to air and, given it’s size and weight, it often explodes when it falls to the ground, causing a lot of exposure to air. Perhaps that’s why the owners were so bothered by the fruit when I asked about it…