Also known as strawberry tree.

Very sweet fruit. Grows faster than moringa. May produce a lot of root suckers.

Propagation

Grows easily from seeds. Soak seeds overnight and add juice from the fruit when planting to speed germination. May germinate better at 80F or higher.

I think the “secret” to growing them is putting them under full sunlight. If you look under a mother tree there are hundreds of fallen fruit and not one single volunteer seedling. This is a pioneer species that establishes itself only in full sun clearings.
The other “secret” is to not let the tiny seeds percolate down through the medium. So either bottom water them, or use a fine mist. You can also put them on a moistened paper towel. If you do it right you will get hundreds of them to sprout. Then just carefully transplant into a pot.

– The Internet

Readily roots from cuttings too.

Cultivars

There don’t seem to be any developed cultivars.

• Red fruit variety
• Yellow fruit variety (less common)

Plant Logs

Links

• Fruits of warm climates
• Garden Oracle
• Garden of Luma
• Propagated from cuttings
• Forum thread about germinating seeds
• Phytochrome and temperature control of seed germination in Muntingia calabura
  • best temperature for germination is 35C (95F) although germination at 40C (104F) was 0%
  • seeds require at least 8 hours of direct sunlight to germinate
  • germination takes 6-12 days in these conditions
  • seeds can be stored at low temperatures 5C (41F) for at least 9 months with no deterioration in germination rates.
• Reproductive ecology of the exotic tree Muntingia calabura
• STUDY OF MUNTINGIA CALABURA AS AN ALTERNATIVE FRUIT FOR CONSUMPTION