Nagalinga / Cannon-Ball Tree
Couroupita guianensis
- Habit
- Tree
- Found in India
- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Nagalinga
Identify Nagalinga by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a tree habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Large round cannonball-like fruit growing directly on the trunk.
- Confirm flower colour: Red.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Lecythidaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Nagalinga.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Couroupita guianensis
- Genus
- Couroupita
- Family
- Lecythidaceae
- Habit
- Tree
- Habitat
- Grown in gardens and temple premises
- Habitat type
- Cultivated
- Native to
- South America
- Distribution
- Introduced in old World tropics
- Found in India
- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Uttar Pradesh
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (LC)
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Redrecorded
Characters marked “recorded” are for Nagalinga itself; the rest are typical of the Lecythidaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- Nagalinga नागलिंग, Tope gola तोप गोला
- Bengali
- Kaman gola, নাগলিঙ্গম, নাগ চম্পা
- Tamil
- நாகலிங்க மரம், நாகலிங்கம்
- Telugu
- శివలింగపుష్పం
- Kannada
- ನಾಗಲಿಂಗ Naagalinga, ಲಿಂಗದಹೂವಿನಮರ Lingada hoovina mara, ನಾಗಲಿಂಗ ಪುಷ್ಪ ಮರ
- Malayalam
- നാഗലിംഗ മരം, Cannon-ball tree, Cannonball tree
- Marathi
- शिवलिंगम Shivalingam, कैलासपति Kailaspati, कैलासपती
About Nagalinga
Cannon-ball Tree (Couroupita guianensis) belongs to the Lecythidaceae family, where it grows as a tree. In India it has been recorded in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and 13 other states. It is grown in gardens and temple premises. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Uses
It is long used in traditional medicine. Those medicinal uses are traditional attributions, not medical advice.
In culture
It is treated as sacred and appears in worship and is recorded in classical literature.
Lecythidaceae
Lecythis Or Brasil Nut Family
Nagalinga belongs to the Lecythidaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Lecythidaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Nagalinga or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides