Golden Spoon - Nance (Byrsonima crassifolia). Leaves, flowers and fruits.

Golden Spoon - Nance - Byrsonima crassifolia

Byrsonima crassifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Malpighiaceae, native to tropical America. Common names used in English include nance, maricao cimun, craboo, and golden spoon. In Jamaica it is called hogberry. The plant is valued for its small (between one, and one and a quarter centimeter in diameter) round, sweet yellow fruit which is strongly scented. The fruits have a very pungent and distinct flavor and smell. When jarred, their texture resembles that of a green or kalamata olive.

Golden Spoon, Byrsonima crassifolia, is a slow-growing large shrub or tree that grows up to 10 m with a bole diameter of 15 to 25 cm. It is slow-growing, drought-tolerant, and deciduous. The tree has dark brown, fissured and rough bark. The inner bark is pinkish. It has tall or short and straight or crooked trunk.

Byrsonima crassifolia forms a rounded, sparsely branched crown of ovoid to elliptical leaves that contain saponins and can be quite toxic. The leaves are opposite, ovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic; 3.2–17 cm long and 4–7 cm wide.

It is suitable to the tropical and subtropical climates. The tree bears yellow to dull orange or red flowers during spring to fall and fruits on August and September. The flowers are 10–20 cm long and 1.25–2 cm wide; yellow or dull orange, red with five petals. The yellow flowers progressively change their color to reddish-orange and are followed by thin skinned, yellowish-orange fruits that have a strong scent and whitish, oily, juicy pulp.

Fruit is small ball shaped, round, ovate to globose; 8–12 cm wide and 0.8-1.5 cm in diameter. The fruit has white and juicy flesh, pungent, distinct aroma and thin skin. The fruit include a single, fairly large stone, containing 1 to 3 white seeds which is 0.5-1.2 cm in diameter.

Byrsonima crassifolia sometimes cultivated for its edible fruits. The tree is native and abundant in the wild, sometimes in extensive stands, in open pine forests and grassy savannas, from central Mexico, through Central America, to Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil; it also occurs in Trinidad, Barbados, Curaçao, St. Martin, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and throughout Cuba and the Isle of Pines. The nance is limited to tropical and subtropical climates. In Central and South America, the tree ranges from sea-level to an altitude of 1,800 m. It is highly drought-tolerant.

The fruit is edible raw or cooked as dessert. Thin-skinned and peculiarly odorous, with a white, juicy, oily pulp that varies in flavour from insipid to sweet, acid or cheese-like. A very popular fruit, it is usually eaten out of hand, and is also cooked as a dessert, used in jams, soups, sherbets etc.

The fruits are eaten raw or cooked as dessert. In rural Panama, the dessert prepared with the addition of sugar and flour, known as pesada de nance, is quite popular. The fruits are also made into dulce de nance, a candy prepared with the fruit cooked in sugar and water. In Nicaragua (where the fruit is called nancite), it is a popular ingredient for several desserts, including raspados (a frozen dessert made from a drink prepared with nancites) and a dessert made by leaving the fruit to ferment with some sugar in a bottle for several months (usually from harvest around August–September until December) -- this is sometimes called "nancite in vinegar".

The fruits are also often used to prepare carbonated beverages, ice cream and juice; in Brazil, to flavor mezcal-based liqueurs, or make an oily, acidic, fermented beverage known as chicha, the standard term applied to assorted beer-like drinks made of fruits or maize. Nance is used to distill a rum-like liquor called crema de nance in Costa Rica. Mexico produces a licor de nanche.

In Veracruz, Mexico, it is called nanche and it is a common dessert element that can be found in the form of popsicles (percheronas) and ice sorbets (raspado). Fruit components can be processed to make traditional and innovative food products, namely candies, cookies, cakes, candied fruits, ice creams, sorbets, jellies, juices, liqueurs, jams, nectars, pickles, and fruit drinks.

In Panama, the wood from the tree is used as an aromatic in smoking and grilling.

The bark (probably the inner bark)  is rich in tannins and has been used medicinally by many local peoples. It is antidote, antiinflammatory, astringent, emmenagogue, febrifuge and purgative. It has been used to treat gastrointestinal disorders, including indigestion, diarrhoea and dysentery; pulmonary complaints; snakebites; fevers; cases of leucorrhoea; and to promote menstruation. The bark has been used externally as a wash or poultice to treat wounds, skin infections, ulcers etc. As a mouthwash it has been used to tighten the teeth where gums are diseased.

An infusion of the leaves is used to treat high blood pressure. The leaves are used as a wash to clean and soothe ulcers. The brown powder from the under surface of the leaf is applied onto the cut end of the umbilical cord to prevent infection. The sap from the bark and leaves is inserted into the orifice of the penis as a treatment for gonorrhoea. The leaves contain various flavonoids, saponins and terpenes.

The bark contains 17-28 % tannin and 3 % oxalic acid. It is employed in tanning. The fruit is high in tannin, especially when unripe and is sometimes used in dyeing. The fruit skin imparts a light-brown hue to cotton cloth. An ink can be made from the bitter green fruit. The bark yields a strong fibre.

The heartwood is a reddish or pinkish-brown; the thin band of sapwood is greyish. It is coarse-textured; close and cross-grained. The wood is heavy, hard, tough, strong, brittle, and only moderately durable. It takes a good polish. The wood is usually available only in small sizes; it is highly prized for boat ribs, and is used for tool handles, turnery, cabinetwork, furniture and small-scale construction.

In Brazil, the wood is chosen for the hot fire over which people smoke the stimulant paste of guaran' (Paullinia cupana) because the burning wood has a pleasant odour. In some areas, the wood is used for making a good quality charcoal.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrsonima_crassifolia
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrsonima_crassifolia
https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Byrsonima+crassifolia