Manilkara zapota

Syn. Lucuma zapota

IUCN Red List Least Concern (LC)

Local name

Sapodilla plum (English)
Chikoo (Hindi/Gujarati/Marathi)
Sima ippacettu (Telugu)

Tree type

Evergreen Deciduous

Family: Sapotaceae

30m

Indicated uses

Medicinal Edible Ornamental Avenue Other

Flowering & fruiting

Flowering Fruiting

Key characters

Bark

The bark is pale, rough, cracked or fissured, the inner bark is pinkish with sticky white latex, and mature trunks show diagonal tapping scars from chicle collection.

Leaves

Its leaves are highly ornamental, evergreen, glossy, alternate, spirally clustered at the tips of the forked twigs; elliptic, pointed at both ends, firm, 7.5-11.25 cm long and 2.5-4 cm wide.

Flower

Flowers are small and bell-like, with 3 brown-hairy outer sepals and 3 inner sepals enclosing the pale-green corolla and 6 stamens. They are borne on slender stalks at the leaf bases.

Fruit / Seeds

The fruit may be nearly round, oblate, oval, ellipsoidal, or conical; when immature it is hard.

Did you know?

The milky latex of Manilkara zapota was once used to make natural chewing gum, known as chicle. The species name zapota comes from Spanish zapote, from Nahuatl tzapotl.

Distribution

Mexico to Colombia.