The actual tree (the averrhoa carambola) grows in SE Asia, and is grown ornamentally as well as for its fruit yield. It is an evergreen, and the fruits that is grows are bizarre 10-sided truncated prisms, like three-dimensional stars, roughly the size of a small fist.

The fruit itself, also called a carambola (or carambole in French), and is reddish-orange and yellow with brown marks, and sweet. It can be cut into star-shaped slices, as one would with a green pepper, and used in salads. Too, one could wait a week for it to ripen, and then serve it as a dessert.

The name of the plant/fruit comes from the Indian sanskrit word "karambal". A carambola is also Spanish for a stroke in billiards, as well as refering to the red ball in the same. See also: Carom.

Ca`ram*bo"la (?), n. Bot.

An East Indian tree (Averrhoa Carambola), and its acid, juicy fruit; called also Coromandel gooseberry.

 

© Webster 1913.

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