Sapotaceae

• Manilkara zapota
• Pouteria campechiana
• Synsepalum dulcificum

• Common Name: Chicle, Sapodilla, Naseberry
• Family: Sapotaceae Juss.

• Country of Origin: Yucatan, southern Mexico
• Habitat: Southern Pacific Dry Forests

• 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.

  Chicle, the latex obtained from the bark of the tree has been used as a chewing gum base for many years.