Heaven Lotus

Overview

Gustavia superba, is a small tropical tree, native to tropical South America. It was first discovered in Panama in 1873 by Osbert Salvin, an English naturalist best known for co-authoring a 52 volume encyclopaedia on the natural history of Central America known as the 'Biologia Centrali-Americana'. One of 41 species within this genus, many of which are are listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The edible fruit is gathered from the wild and used locally. The tree is often cultivated for its large, showy and fragrant waxy flowers whilst, in contrast, it also harbours a repulsive odour - its cut wood has an overwhelmingly foetid odour. Also, the flowers attract bees and thus Membrillo is known as a honey tree. The large leaves are eaten by animals and used to to make a medicinal tea.

Vernacular Names

Membrillo (Panama), Paco (Colombia).

Agroecology

Grows on gently sloping, sunny hills, humid woodlands and rainforest, often in swampy soils. A plant of lowland tropics, where it is mainly found at elevations below 600 m, though also extends to over 1,000 m. It is intolerant of temperatures lower than 5 °C. Prefers a moist, rich, slightly acid soil in light shade.

Morphology

• Stem - the bole can be around 35 cm in diameter, sparsely branched. The heartwood is reddish brown, the thick sapwood nearly white with darker or nearly black streaks.The wood is straight and fine-grained, hard, heavy, strong and tough, bark brown, slightly fissured.
• Leaves - green, simple, alternate, oblong, large, pinnate, serrate margin, foliar base cuneate, apex cuspidate, foliar arrangement along stem whorled, smooth, glossy leaves.
• Flower - fragrant, variably-colored blooms (white, pink, purple), inflorescences cauline, racemose, puberulous, with 3-12 flowers, the rachis 10-64 mm long; pedicels 29-85 mm long, subtended by a single ovate to oblong basal bract 1.8-4 x 1.5-5 mm and bearing at or below middle 2 ovate, cucullate bracteoles 1-6 x 1.5-5.5 mm, the latter often fused at bases to form a cup-like structure which encircles pedicel, the cup often with inconspicuous extrafloral nectaries in axils (only easily seen in picked young flowers). 
• Fruit - pear-shaped, the hard green shell contains a yellowish-orange pulp and up to 20 seeds, globose or depressed globose, 3-9 x 4-100 cm, the opercular region sunken below fruit surface and < 1/2 diameter of fruit diameter, the calyx forming a raised, entire, circular rim, the exocarp yellow at maturity, the mesocarp orange.
• Seed - usually angled in cross section, 12-35 x 11-22 mm, the seed coat turns brown at maturity; aril poorly developed, yellow, surrounding funicle.

Cultivation

Propagated by seed (generatively), and by cutting (vegetatively).

Chemical Constituents

Carotenoids (tetraterpenoids, carotenes), fatty acids.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The Indian Kuna used the bark by preparation in the treatment of body pain.
• The leaves are used as medicinal tea.