What is "crescentia"

Crescentia (calabash tree, huingo, krabasi, or kalebas) is a genus of six species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to southern North America, the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America. The species are moderate-size trees growing to tall, and producing large spherical fruits, with a thin, hard shell and soft pulp, up to in diameter.

Crescentia, a Latin word meaning growth, can refer to:

• Crescentia, a genus of trees in the family Bignoniaceae
• Saint Crescentia, female martyr with Saint Vitus whose nurse she had been
• Crescentia (romance), an Old High German chivalric romance
• The Crescentia cycle, a grouping of romances similar in plot to the original Crescentia, including such words as Le Bone Florence of Rome

Crescentia is an Old High German chivalric romance, written in Kaiserchronik about 1150. Other versions appeared in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in prose and verse.

Numerous romances, such as Le Bone Florence of Rome, are classified as belonging to the "Crescentia cycle" because of the common plot; it is the oldest known variant of it.