From the
Tropical Fruit News, Rare Fruit Council International Miami RFCI
by E. L. Little, Jr., R. Woodbury and F. H. Wadsworth
Mamey Sapote in
Puerto Rico
Sapote or mamey sapote, Pouteria sapota
(Sapotaceae), a tree with milky latex is rarely cultivated for its
large edible fruits. Identified by: 1) mostly large reverse lance-
shaped (oblanceolate) or narrowly obovate leaves, short or long pointed
at apex and gradually tapering to long pointed base, clustered at ends
of stout twigs; 2) many cup shaped or bell shaped pale yellow flowers
about 1/2 inch long, almost stalkless in clusters on twigs back
ofleaves; and 3) brown egg shaped to elliptic fruits 4-6 inches long
and 3-4 inches wide, with sweetish soft pick-red or purplish flesh and
milky sap.
Medium sized tree 30-40 feet high and 1-1/2 feet in
trunk diameter, elsewhere becoming much larger, to 80-100 feet tall and
2 feet or more in trunk diameter. The rounded crown has evergreen or
deciduous foliage. The bark is reddish brown and shaggy with milky sap
or latex. The stout gray twigs are finely rust red hairy at apex and
bear leaves singly (alternate) but clustered near ends.
Petioles
are 1½ to 1-1½ inches long, rusty -red hairy when young. Blades are
mostly 5-14 inches long and 1-1½ to 5 inches wide, thickened and
leathery, slightly shiny or dull, the prominent lateral veins straight
and parallel, nearly hairless except on veins beneath, the upper
surface dark green and the lower surface light green.
Many
flowers are produced along the stouter twigs back of leaves, several
together and almost stalkless. There are 8-12 overlapping light brown
rounded hairy sepals 118-1¼ inch long, the large yellow ones inside;
the pale yellow corolla 3/8 inch long with tube and five blunt lobes a
little longer than the tube, spreading slightly to 3/8 inch across; 5
yellowish stamens 3/16 inch long at end of corolla tube and opposite
the lobes and alternating with 5 pointed lobes (staminodes); and
yellowish pistil almost 3/8 inch long with conical 6 celled ovary and
style. The brown finely scaly, edible fruit (a berry) is rounded at the
base and blunt pointed at apex. There are 1 or 2 large elliptic shiny
brown seeds 2-1½ - 3 inches long, slightly flattened and with long
gray rough scar like area on 1 side.
The wood is light
reddish or brown, moderately hard and heavy (specific gravity about
.6), strong and fairly durable. Elsewhere it has been used in rural
carpentry and for cabinetwork and carriages, but generally the trees
are saved for their fruits.
Sapote
or mamey sapote is one of the best known native fruit trees of tropical
America. The fruits have a distinctive sweetish flavor, or are insipid
to some persons, and usually are eaten raw. However, they may be
prepared into a marmalade or jelly and sherbets and ice cream.
Elsewhere the ground seeds, which have a flavor like bitter almonds,
have served as sweetmeats for flavoring chocolate and candy, and in a
beverage. The seeds also are reported to be poisonous. Oil from the
seeds was used by the Aztec Indians for dressing the hair and has been
employed in home medicine. Sapote is also a honey plant.
Rarely
planted at low altitudes in Puerto Rico, at Bayamon for example, for
fruit and shade, but not native or naturalized. Also reported from
Virgin Islands.
Range -- Widely planted in tropical America
from southern Florida and Bermuda through West Indies from Cuba to
Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago and from southern Mexico through
Central America to Ecuador and Brazil. The original natural range
uncertain, probably southern Mexico and northern Central America to
Nicaragua. Found native in northeastern Nicaragua.
Other
common names--mamey rojo, sapote (Puerto Rico); sapote, zapote, marney,
mamey colorado (Spanish); zapote colorado, zapote mamey (Mexico);
sapote grande (Nicaragua); zapotillo (Costa Rica); mamey de tierra
(Panama); sapote (English); mamee sapote (Bermuda); mamee-apple,
mammee-sapote (Belize); sapotier jaune doeuf sapotillier marmelade,
grand sapotillier (Haiti); sapote a creme (Guadeloupe); sapote, grosse
sapote (Martinique); sapota (Brazil).
Botanical synonyms-Calocarpum
mammosum (L) Pierre, C.
Sapota (Jacq.) Merrill, Lucuma mammosa (L)
Gaertn. f, Pouteria
mammosa (L) Cronq.
Editor's
note: This delicious fruit, much beloved here in South Florida,
especially among our Hispanic population, has become increasingly
popular throughout the world since this book was published The general
public is discovering its rich and wonderful taste through sherbets and
ice creams, and the number of 'plantings has risen accordingly.
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