It is a fruit of Averrhoa carambola. The genus name Averrhoa is after Averroes an Arabian physician. It has been cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions for hundreds of years.
There are other names including five corners, five fingers and numerous non-English names. The name carambola is said to have come from Malabar which the Portuguese adopted it at very early times.
One of the interesting non-English names come from the Philippines where it is called ‘balembing’ or ‘belimbing’, which is an idiom used to describe politicians who seems to have having multiple faces.
In India it is called as Kamrakh and its reference in early written accounts and Sanskrit name ‘Karmar’ indicates the presence of carambola in India much before the arrival of Europeans to India.
The Dutch traveler Linschoten first brought the news of the existence of this fruit to the Western world in 1598, describing it as a kind of sour apple with ribs.
The crop was probably introduced to Hawaii sometime after 1789 and to Australia at the end of the 19th century.
The fruit was appeared in the American continent to date from the end of the 18th century and it was known to be growing in the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro in 1856. The star fruit was introduced to southern Florida in 1887.
The major production areas in the world are the tropical and subtropical regions in East Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Kuangsi and Hainan in southern China.
History of star fruit (carambola)
