Cannonball tree

Description:

Tree to 100 feet. Flower is on thick, contorted branching inflorescence stalks that grow directly out of tree trunk and hang entangled down it. Each flower to 4 in. across, red to red yellow, with 6 fleshy petals, the center consisting of a thick hook of partly fused stamens below a yellow mat of smaller, densely clustered stamens. Fruit, brown, spherical cannon balls, like husked coconuts, hanging on the inflorescence stems from the trunk. Each is about 8 inches across, with a thick, hard shell enclosing numerous seeds in a soft pulp.