Manilkara zapota

M. zapota is an evergreen, slow-growing tree, 5-20 m in cultivation but reaching up to 40 m in height in the forest, with an average trunk diameter of 1.5 m. The crown is pyramidal to rounded. Branches are horizontal or drooping. Leaves are 5-13 cm long with pointed ends, stiff and alternate, clustering at ends of shoots, pinkish upon emergence, turning light green, then darkening with age. Flowers are inconspicuous, bell-shaped, and white, 0.9 cm in diameter and borne singly or in clusters in leaf axils near the tips of branches. The fruit is a berry, round to oval or conical, 5-10 cm in diameter, weighing 100 to 400 g (some cultivars weigh up to 1 kg).. Fruits mature year-round, but most abundantly from May to September. They are covered with a hairy, brown peel and have very sweet, light-brown to reddish-brown pulpy flesh, gritty to smooth in texture. Each fruit has 0-12 flattened, shiny, black seeds, each 1.9 cm in diameter. Larger trees have red-brown bark with a flaky appearance. A milky latex which exudes from all tree parts coagulates into ÒchicleÓ, the principal constituent of chewing gum before the advent of synthetics (Balerdi et al., 2013;Kaufman and Kaufman, 2013).