THE AMAZING CALABASH OF GUYANA
By Dmitri Allicock
Calabash Tree
The calabash was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not primarily for food, but for use as a water container. The bottle gourd may have been carried from Africa to Asia, Europe and the Americas in the course of human migration.
This tough prehistoric stubby looking tree belongs to the family Bignoniaceae and is rarely seen much taller than 15 feet with a leafy canopy that provide a natural shady cool playground for Guyanese children.
The light green calabash flower of five petals fuses into a funnel shape that give birth to large spherical fruits of more than one foot in diameter. The hard shell of the fruit encloses an acrid smelly whitish pulp and thin dark brown seeds.
The fruits of the calabash appears to have no formal order and are found growing from trunk to branch. Both the shell and gut of the fruit have been adapted to many useful purposes in Guyana.
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Oh Beautiful Guyana by Dmitri Allicock 