This are a few pictures I took while I was cruising around a malay village in my hometown. I saw this peculiar looking tree growing by the roadside. Came down and took a few pictures of it.A closer inspection, the bark of the tree is full of spikes and very sharp too. Might this be a protection to protect the tree from pests?
The common name for this tree is Huru, Monkeys’ Dinner Bell or Sandbox tree. Scientific name is Hura crepitans. It is from Tropical America. (Thanks to Lulu for the tip.)
The fruits also look unique, its shaped like a mini pumpkin. It’s hard, I plucked one out from the tree to the amusement of the vietnamese workers who were cycling around the area.
The flowers look very reddish, resembling a chilli. Sorry for the small pictures, my digital camera was already on maximum zoom as the tree was quite tall.
The row of prickly trees, species and name unknown. Any botanist would care to explain to me what these trees are besides the fact that someone told me that the sap is poisonous. (Wiki explanation: Fishermen have been said to use the milky, caustic sap from this tree to poison fish.)
maybe if i’m taking the pics, the fruits could have been zoomed much bigger 😛
lolz!
I plucked one of the fruits, it wasnt really nice when taken upclose. Dried up with plenty of ants calling it home. Hard to get a pic like that, moreover the area near the trees have tall grasses, what lurks in there, I do not want to find out.
OH! OH! I have that tree outside my house back home! It’s very nice and shady ^-^
The common name for this tree is Huru, Monkeys’ Dinner Bell or Sandbox tree. Scientific name is Hura crepitans. It is from Tropical America.
That’s great! I was searching for a picture of specimen and I found it just now. Thanks a lot!
I am so happy that I found this!
Years ago I went to the zoo and I touched this tree and started to swell up and get huge, ichy and burning bumps all over. I had a mass illergic reacation but I didnt know what it was call, so this helped alot 🙂
Hi,
found your site while doing research on the Sandbox Tree for a class project. Thought you might like to know the spikes are in fact to keep predators away and the fruit that you picked actually explodes when is ripe and can cause serious injury to humans. The sounds the fruit makes is why they refer to it as the monkey’s dinner bell.
Kind of cool, huh?