Muntingia
species of plant
Muntingia is a genus of plants in the family Muntingiaceae, comprising only one species, Muntingia calabura, named in honour of Abraham Munting. It is native from southern Mexico to Bolivia and Argentina. Its fruit is edible, and it has been widely introduced in other tropical areas.
Description
Muntingia calabura is a shrub or tree that quickly grows to between 7.5 and 12 m tall, with spreading branches. The leaves are alternate, distichous, oblong or lanceolate, 4–15 cm long and 1–6 cm wide, with toothed margin and covered in short hairs.
The flowers are small (up to 3 cm wide), solitary or in inflorescences of two or three flowers, with five lanceolate sepals, hairy, five obovate white petals, many stamens with yellow anthers, and a smooth ovoid ovary. The flowers last only one day, their petals drop in the afternoon.
Its fruit is an edible berry about 1.5 cm in diameter and with smooth, thin skin; they are green when unripe, turning red when mature. Its pulp is light-brown and juicy, with very fine seeds; the pulp tastes like fig.
Distribution and habitat
M. calabura is native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and western South America south to Bolivia and Argentina.
“Muntingia” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Muntingia, species and plant can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Muntingia” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Muntingia, species and plant provides the most credible route into that argument.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1915507. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Muntingia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.