Description: The sapodilla is an attractive upright, slow-growing, long-lived evergreen tree. Distinctly pyramidal when young, with age the tree may develops a crown that is dense and rounded or sometimes open and somewhat irregular in shape. The leaves are 3 to 4-1/2 inches long and 1 to 1-1/2 inches wide. They are medium green, glossy, alternate and spirally clustered at the tip of forked twigs. Flowers are small, inconspicuous and bell-like, approximately 3/8 inch in diameter. They are borne on slender stalks in the axil of the leaves. There are several flushes of flowers throughout the year. The fruit is round to egg-shape, 2 - 4 inches in diameter. The skin is brown and scruffy when ripe. The flesh varies from yellow to shades of brown and sometimes reddish-brown, and may be smooth or of a granular texture. The flavor is sweet and pleasant, ranging from a pear flavor to crunchy brown sugar. Fruits can be seedless, but usually have from 3 to 12 hard, black, shiny, flattened seeds about 3/4 inch long in the center of the fruit.1
Uses: Chicle, the latex obtained from the bark of the tree has been used as a chewing gum base for many years.
WCSP (2017). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Last accessed on Monday, 05 August, 2019.
Chicle at Wikipedia. Last accessed on Monday, 05 August, 2019.
Image #00 (cropped) & #01 (original) by Stephencdickson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons. Last accessed on Wednesday, October 25, 2017.
data regenerated on Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:58:43 -0400 [bcm v4.0]
W/C = Wild Collected = indicates flowering in past 14 days
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= map available for this accession
= accession added within past 90 days