Manilkara zapota (L.) P.Royen

സപ്പോട്ട

Family : Sapotaceae

Synonym : Achras zapota L.

Common Names : Sapota, Naseberry, Chiku

Flowering Period : February – June

Distribution : Native of South America; widely cultivated in the tropics

Habitat : Cultivated

Uses : Fruits edible. Young fruits have high tannin content, boiled and decoction drunk to treat diarrhoea. Seed paste applied to bite and sting wounds due to poisonous animals. Young leaf shoots washed to remove sap and eaten raw or with rice in Indonesia. Gummy latex used in tropics to fill dental cavities or make figurines. Wood strong and durable, used to make beams and furniture. Gummy latex tapped from trunk during rainy season (latex flows better) for making chewing gum and adhesives.

Key Characters :

Manilkara zapota are trees having exudation milky white latex. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered towards the apex of branchlets; lamina elliptic, margin entire. Flowers bisexual, white, solitary or in pairs from the axils of upper leaves; sepals 6, 3+3; corolla, campanulate, greenish-white or cream; lobes 6; stamens 6; ovary superior, many celled, ovules many. Fruit a berry.