Lansones tree grows to a height of about 8 meters. There are other varieties which are lesser in height. This tree is grown for its delicious fruits. The fruits are borne in grape-like bunches. Each fruit is ovoid in shape, about 2 to 4 centimeters in diameter. The skin is yellowish, tough and satiny. The fruit usually has one to three viable seeds.
Economic and Nutritive Values of Lansones
*The ripe lansones fruits are considered one of the most delicious Philippine fruits.
*The rings and seeds contain chemicals which are industrially and medicinally important.
Medical Value of lansones
• The solution formed by boiling the bark of the tree in water is taken internally as medicine for dysentery.
• The powdered bark is applied as remedy against poison in scorpion and centipede stings.
• The ground seeds mixed with water is taken internally to expel intestinal worms.
• The resin from the bark of the tree is prepared and applied externally for the prevention of muscular spasms or cramps.
• A preparation from the dried rinds is useful in counteracting diarrhea.
• Burning dried fruit peels, which gives a certain fragrance drives mosquitoes away.
Lansones grows profitably in loamy, clayey and sandy soils with good drainage. It thrives best in places with a uniform distribution of rainfall and in areas with distinct dry and wet seasons. It grows well at sea level to about 2,000 feet elevation.
Lansones can be propagated by seeds, marcotting and inarching. Seeds are first planted in seedbeds. When the seedlings are two-and-a-half years old, they are transplanted in the prepared holes in the field, 5 meters apart.
The white and red bark bores are serious pests that attack the lansones tree. One way of controlling these insect pests is to scrape off the barks of the trunk and branches of the tree. The places where the barks are scraped should then be washed with “gogo,” a kind of bark of a certain vine. This removes the hiding places of the borers.
After five or six months after blooming, the fruits are ready for th harvesting. Harvest only the fully-mature or ripe fruits.
