The carambola tree is slow-growing, short-trunked with a much-branched, bushy, broad, rounded crown and reaches 20 to 30 ft (6-9 m) in height. Its deciduous leaves, spirally arranged, are alternate, imparipinnate, 6 to 10 in(15-20 cm) long, with 5 to 11 nearly opposite leaflets, ovate or ovate-oblong; soft, medium-green, and smooth on the upper surface, finely hairy and whitish on the underside. Small clusters of red-stalked, lilac, purple-streaked, downy flowers, about 1/4 in (6 mm) wide, are borne on the twigs in the axils of the leaves. The showy, oblong, longitudinally 5- to 6-angled fruits, 2 1/2 to 6 in (6.35-15 cm) long and up to 3 1/2 (9 cm) wide, have thin, waxy, orange-yellow skin and juicy, crisp, yellow flesh when fully ripe.

Vermifuge (flowers); galactagogue and emmenagogue (crushed seeds); antidote (roots)

Carambola
Florida Gardener.com

To halt hemorrhages and to relieve bleeding hemorrhoids (ripe fruit); to counteract fevers (dried fruit or juice); to soothe headache, on the eruptions of chicken-pox, on ringworm (leaves)