Ethnobotany and Plant Conservation - Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, Como Park, St. Paul, Minnesota: Heavenly Smells. Plant of the Day: Star Fruit Tree

Creative staff display
outside of Fern Room

The gardens look and smell heavenly today! The staff continues to do an amazing job of cleaning, organizing and structuring the paths, plants and signage that make the Conservatory plant collections heavenly to enjoy by visitors. The decorative touches along the hallways are always beautiful, interesting and imaginative.

Although I interpret in the Fern Room, Palm Dome and North Garden, I almost always walk directly to the North Garden to start my interpretive volunteer time. Today, as I walk into the North Garden, I am struck by the many star fruits that are growing on the star fruit tree just inside the North Garden entrance. There are numerous fruit to see and they are all a bright yellow. Every visitor that sees these fruit have the same glowing reaction to how interesting and pretty they look.

Starfruit - Averrhoa carambola

Star fruit is a very useful species for humans. It is used as a garnish in salads, cooked with seafood, fermented into wine or made into pudding. The wood from this tree is useful for construction or to make furniture.

Many other plants are fruiting around the North Garden including the Mexican Cream Guava (Psidium guajava). The guava fruit is high in vitamins C and A. This plant is a short evergreen tree that grows in most subtropical and tropical regions of the world. A concoction made by boiling the leaves and/or the bark has been used by many tribes for diarrhea and dysentery throughout the Amazon. It has also been used for sore throats, vomiting, stomach upsets and vertigo.