A medium to large buttressed tree, up to 45 m tall in dense lowland forests and 10-15 m in orchards and backyards. Bark dark red brown, peeling off irregularly. Leaves elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, 10-15 cm long, 3-4 cm wide, papery; base acute; apex acuminate, upper surface glabrous, glossy, lower surface densely covered with silvery or golden scales; secondary veins in about 15 pairs, distinctly looping near the margin; venation indistinct below; petioles 1-1.5 cm long, angular. Flowers in fascicles of corymbose inflorescences; pedicels 5-7 cm long; calyx saccate, flattened at the base, with tube about 2 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter; petals white or creamy, spathulate, 5 cm long and 2 cm wide at the broadest part; stamen white, 4 cm long in 5 distinct phalanges, each filament with up to 12 reniform anthers dehiscing by a slit; ovary ovoid; style slender, 4 cm long, stigma yellow; Fruit varies greatly in size; 15-25 cm in diameter, green to yellowish brown, with spines that are variable in length and shape. Seeds chestnut-brown, completely enclosed in a thick, white or yellow, soft, sweet, fragrant aril.
Herb Effects
As a general tonic (fruit); vermifuge (fruit flesh); febrifuge (decoction of the leaves and roots)
Applied on the head for fever (leaf juice); in jaundice (leaves); applied to swellings and skin diseases (decoctions of the leaves and fruits); taken after childbirth (ash of the burned rind); to make a drink together with coconut to relieve stomach ache (roots); to treat mouth ulcers (bark sap).
Health Remedies 
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