Averrhoa carambola Arabian physician, astronomer and philosopher of the 12th century. Past synonyms include: The tree and fruits have many different names, Carambola is the Spanish vernacular name of the tree. In English it is called Star fruit, Carambola and Chinese gooseberry, in Malaysia and the Philippines it has numerous names. In Indonesia it is called "belimbing", in Tagalog it is called "balimbing". The related bilimbi is called "kamias" in Tagalog. "Averrhoa carambola" has a number of different forms differing in fruit taste, texture, and shape, some are very acidic and others are sweet. The plant is grown in Malaysia and Taiwan,
Common name languages; the word for "cat", for instance, is easily recognizable in most Germanic and many Romance languages. Many vernacular names, however, are restricted to a single country and colloquial names to local districts. Common names are used in the writings of both professionals and laymen. Lay people sometimes object to the use of scientific names over common names, but the use of scientific names can be defended, as it is in these remarks from a book on marine fish: In scientific binomial nomenclature, names commonly are derived from classical or modern Latin or Greek or Latinised forms of vernacular words