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Manilkara zapota (L.) P. Royen

Synonym                    : Achras zapota L.

Family                        : Sapotaceae

Local Names              : Sapota, Naseberry, Chiku

Flowering and fruiting period: February – June 

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

Habitat: Cultivated

IUCN status: Data Deficient

Endemic: No

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.