Sapodilla

In Pakistan it is cultivated for its edible fruit, sapodilla plum, which when ripe is yellowish-brown, soft and sweet. The coagulated resinous latex is derived from the bark and is used commercially for making chewing gum.

Small or large tree. Leaves crowded at the end of branches, ovate-elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 x 7-12.0 cm, glabrous, subcoriaceous, midrib prominent. Flowers white, 1-1.5 cm across, long pedicelled. Sepals unequal, 3 larger than the others. Petals 6. Stamens 6, opposite the petals; staminodes as many as the petals, petaloid. Fruit usually a globose fleshy berry, 5-10 cm in diameter„ epicarp thin, rough rusty brown. Seeds 5-12, shining black, obovate, c. 2.0 cm long.

Distribution: A native of W. Indies and tropical America.

Fl. Per.: Throughout the year.

Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) is an evergreen forest tree native to Central America, Mexico, and possibly the West Indies, but is now cultivated throughout the New World and Old World tropics. It may reach 20 m in height. The fruit, which is 3 to 8 cm long, is brown with black shining seeds embedded in the pulp. Immature fruits produce an unpleasant latex and should not be eaten. The seeds should be removed since they reportedly have a tendency to lodge in one's throat. Sapodilla is mainly a dessert fruit. It contains around 15% total sugars (roughly equal amounts of glucose and fructose) and 10 mg vitamin C per 100 g. The main acid constituent is malic acid. There is limited international trade in Sapodilla fruits. (Vaughan and Geissler 1997) Wild and cultivated Sapodilla trees can be tapped for their milky latex, which coagulates into "chicle". At one time, chicle was important in the manufacture of chewing gum. (Vaughan and Geissler 1997)

Manilkara zapota, the sapodilla, is a tropical evergreen tree in the Sapotaceae (sapota family) native to and long cultivated by the Aztecs and Mayas in Mexico and Central America for its pear-flavored edible fruit and for its latex, chicle, the original source of chewing gum. Sapodilla is now cultivated in various tropical regions, including India, various parts of southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the U.S. (Florida) for its fruit, the latex tapped from the bark, and occasionally for timber. The sapodilla was an important component of forests in its native range in the Yucatan region of Mexico and throughout Central America—by some estimates, the region once had around 100 million sapodilla trees. The sapodilla is a large attractive tree, sometimes planted as an ornamental, reaching 18 to 20 m (58 to 65 feet) when grown in the open, but up to 30 m (100 ft) in forest canopies. The pointed, elliptical leaves are alternate, spirally clustered at the branch tips, and are leathery and glossy green, 7.5 to 15.5 cm (3 to 6 in) long. The small white to pale green flowers are bell-shaped, enclosed by 6 sepals (outer flower parts), and are borne singly in the axils (where leaf meets stem). The fruits are large-seeded berries, up to 11.5 cm (4 in) across, with variable shape but often egg-shaped with thin, rusty brown, rough skin covering yellow-brown translucent juicy flesh with 3 to 12 shiny, dark brown to black mildly toxic seeds in a whorl in the center of the fruit. The edible flesh may have the grainy texture of a pear or may be smooth. Sapotilla is now used primarily for its fruits, which are high in vitamin C and are generally eaten fresh or prepared in purées, ice creams, or beverages. However, its production of latex, chicle, for chewing gum, which was first used by used by the Mayas, was of great economic importance in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize from the late 1800s through the 1940s, when chicle was a component of popular chewing gums developed and sold by companies such as Wrigley’s and Beech-Nut. During World War II, shortages of chicle resulted in rationing of chewing gum for soldiers, and helped spur the development of synthetic replacements. Despite a recent revival of chicle as a natural health-food alternative to synthetic gums, chicle-based gums made up just 3.5% of the chewing gum produced in 2007. (Bailey et al. 1976, Forero and Redclift 2007, Matthews 2009, Morton 1987, van Wyk 2005.)

Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen

Achras zapota L., Sp. Pl. Append. 1190. 1753 [spelling changed by Linnaeus in 1762].

Achras sapota L., Sp. Pl. 2nd ed. 1:470. 1762 [sensu later authors and L. pro parte excluding type].—Cuzent, Étud. Vég. Tahiti 129. 1857; Iles Soc. Tahiti 214. 1860. Hille-brand, Fl. Haw. Is. 275. 1888.—Wilder, Bish. Mus. Bull. 86: 86. 1931; Bish. Mus. Bull. 120:37. 1934.—F.B.H. Brown, Bish. Mus. Bull. 130:223. 1935.

Sapota achras Miller, Gard. Dict. 8th ed. [unnumbered] 1768.—Pancher in Cuzent, Iles Soc. Tahiti 234, 1860.—Lanessan, Pl. Ut. Col. Franc. 865. 1886.—Butteaud, Fl. Tahiti. 56. 1891.

Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen, Blumea 7:410. 1953.

DESCRIPTION (after van Royen).—Lactiferous tree. Leaves alternate, 5–12 × 1.8–5.5 cm, petioles slender, 1.5–3 cm; with 18–21 secondary nerves. Petals 0.3–0.6 cm, with 2 appendages. Stamens 6; anthers 0.15–3 mm. Ovary (6–)10–12-celled. Seeds compressed to terete with an almost basal scar; scar varying from large to small, wide to narrow, oblong to linear at base of the ventral side of seed;

RANGE.—Society Islands (cultivated): Tahiti: Pare, Mamao, not collected. Raiatea: Moore 722, Faaroa, alt. 20 m, 11 April 1927, sterile (BISH, 2 sheets; MIN).

Native to tropical America. Introduced into Tahiti in 1846 by Admiral Hamelin, according to Cuzent. Also cultivated in Hawaii, Rarotonga, Makatea, the Marquesas, and generally throughout the tropics.

ETHNOBOTANY.—English: sapodilla, or sapodilla plum; French: sapotille; both from the West Indian aboriginal name, sapota. Tahitian: tapoti, an obvious borrowing.

Used in America, but not in Tahiti, as a source of chicle, from which chewing-gum is made.

3. Plonchonella Pierre

Planchonella Pierre, Not. Bot. Sapot. 35. 1891.

This genus is a segregate from Sideroxylon, and was distributed among five sections of that genus by Engler. While it has not been fully adopted (rejected by Engler, Burkill, Drake, Rock, Merrill, Guillaumin, and F. B. H. Brown), many recent workers on Pacific floras have used it (Dubard, Lam, Skottsberg, Gillespie, St. John, and Chris-tophersen). We were not in a position to study the genus as a whole, but feel inclined to accept Dubard's and Lam's careful treatments.

TYPE-SPECIES.—Planchonella obovata R. Brown.

RANGE.—As a separate genus, it ranges from tropical Asia and Australia east to Tahiti, with about 82 species. Included with Sideroxylon (along with other segregates) it is found in the tropics and subtropics of both worlds with about 125 species. In either case, besides the following, there are endemic species in Hawaii (5), Samoa (1), and Fiji (2), and one which has been recorded from Fiji, Tonga, Rarotonga, and Makatea (P. grayana St. John, q.v. sub. P. tahitensis). Two of these have not been named in Sideroxylon and three have not been named in Planchonella, though all appear to be congeneric.

I. Planchonella tahitensis (Nadeaud) Pierre ex Dubard

Sideroxylon tahitense Nadeaud, Journ. de Bot. 11:111. 1897:Journ. de Bot. 13:3. 1899.

Planchonella tahitensis (Nadeaud) Pierre ex Dubard, Ann. Mus. Colon. Marseille 20:50. 1912 [name not in Kew Index].

DESCRIPTION (after Nadeaud).—Tree, 25–40 m high. Wood yellowish. Branches erect, whitish. Twigs and leaves whitish tomentose and buds reddish tomentose. Petioles 0.5–2.5 cm long. Blades ovate or obovate, 10–11 × 3–4 cm, irregularly decurrent, rounded or obtuse; coriaceous, often undulate, deep green with whitish border; lateral veins 10–12, prominent above. Flowers 4–7 in axillary fascicles. Pedicels 1–1.5 cm, arcuate, white-tomentose. Sepals 5, ovate, rounded, silky without, ciliate, persistent. Petals 5, exceeding the calyx, greenish white. Staminodes 5, small, narrow. Stamens 5, opposite the petals; anthers yellow. Ovary enlarged at base, 5-ribbed, tomentose, 5-celled, each 1-ovuled. Style short, stigma capitate, punctiform. Fruit pyriform, obovoid, 3-furrowed, 30 × 17–20 mm, apiculate. Seeds usually 3 (1–4), oboval, flattened, 21 × 10 × 6 mm, pointed and hooked at the base, thick and rounded on the back, with a raised ventral furrow, gray, red-spotted.

RANGE.—Society Islands, 500–1000 m. Flower 8 May 1896, and 25 April 1898. Nadeaud cites the following localities: Tahiti: Arue, Pirae; Papenoo, Haaripo; Faaa, Tipaerui; Punaauia, Punaruu. Moorea: Mt. Raairi.

We have not seen this. From Nadeaud's description, it differs from P. grayana St. John (St. John, in Wilder, 1934) only in being a larger tree with petioles averaging shorter, longer white-hairy pedicels, and seeds averaging larger. Grant saw eight collections of P. grayana (cited by St. John, in Wilder, 1934) from Makatea, Rarotonga, and Fiji (it has also been reported from Tonga). We suspect these two are conspecific but, of course, cannot consider combining them without having studied material of P. tahitensis. If such a union should eventually occur, however, Nadeaud's epithet would take precedence, so the nomenclature given here would not be affected. To the list of synonyms cited by St. John (in Wilder, 1934) may be added Bassia sp. (Cheeseman, 1903:286) and Sideroxylon vitiense Bonpland k Humboldt ex Drake (Drake del Castillo, 1892a:229). This combination thus appeared nine years before it was published by Burkill (1901); it is one of many of Drake del Castillo's names which have been overlooked by later workers on account of being buried in the addenda to the first supplement of the Kew Index.

Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen

Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen, Blumea, 7:410, 1953.

Achras zapota L., Sp. Pl., 1190, 1753.

Achras sapota sensu F. Brown, Flora, 223, 1935 [non L., Sp. Pl., ed. 2, 469, 1762].

Tree to 10 m or more, young parts reddish pubescent; leaves crowded at ends of branchlets, blades elliptic to somewhat oblong or rarely slightly obovate, to 10 × 4.5 cm, thin coriaceous, somewhat falcate, apex rounded to obtuse or acutish, base acute to obtusish, main veins widely divergent, 2–4 mm apart, obscure beneath, not conspicuous above, both sides finely but rather obscurely reticulate-venulose, petioles slender, 12–25 mm long, reddish pubescent, glabrate when older; flowers on pedicels 10–13 mm long, solitary in axils of uppermost leaves or of small oblong bracts, sometimes crowded at tips of stems, subtended by two minute bracteoles, pedicels and sepals densely brown tomentose, buds broadly ovoid, almost hemispherical, very obtuse, 6–7 mm long, 5 mm wide; sepals in 2 series of 3 (−4) each, 8–10 mm long, outer broadly ovate, narrowed somewhat to apex, inner broadly elliptic, obtuse, all densely tomentose without and near margins within; corolla glabrous, about 8–10 mm long, glabrous tube 6–7 mm long, lobes 6, narrowly ovate, apex rounded or tridentate, alternating with 6 petaloid staminodia, stamens 6, elliptic, 2 mm long, rau-cronulate on short filaments inserted opposite corolla lobes, a ring of dense wool surrounding ovary at base of corolla, ovary ovoid, densely woolly, style thick, glabrous, somewhat exceeding corolla, stigma gummy, not much larger than style; fruit globose, brown, up to 7–8 cm across, skin dull, scurfy, flesh thick, dark honey-colored, very sweet, seeds up to 10–12, ellipsoid, 2–2.5 cm long, somewhat compressed, dark brown to black, smooth, scar lance-linear, ventral, not reaching apex of seed.

SPECIMENS SEEN.—Hivaoa I.: single tree on grounds of Compagnie Navale, Atuona, F. Brown (1935:223); Atuona, seen in garden in 1963 by Sachet.

ETHNOBOTANY.—Vernacular names: English, Sap-odilla; French, Sapotille.

Manilkara zapota, commonly known as sapodilla ([ˌsapoˈðiʝa]), sapote, chicoozapote, chicoo, chicle, naseberry, or nispero, among other names, is a long-lived, evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. An example natural occurrence is in coastal Yucatán in the Petenes mangroves ecoregion, where it is a subdominant plant species. It was introduced to the Philippines during Spanish colonization. It is grown in large quantities in Mexico and in tropical Asia including India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh.

The specific epithet zapota is from the Spanish zapote [saˈpote], which ultimately derives from the Nahuatl word tzapotl.