Plant · P-500

Starfruit

Averrhoa carambola

Starfruit is a small evergreen tree whose ribbed, waxy yellow fruit cuts into star-shaped slices - eaten raw or pickled, or turned into juice, jelly and jam, along with edible flowers and leaves that work as a sorrel substitute. It needs a second tree nearby for pollination, since it isn't self-fertile and depends on bees, flies and butterflies to set fruit, but it rewards patience quickly: layered plants can fruit within ten months and grafted stock in one to two years. Anyone with impaired kidney function or on dialysis should avoid eating it - the fruit carries soluble oxalates and a neurotoxin, caramboxin, that is dangerous in that condition.