Description

Botany

The chicozapote is a large tropical tree, up to 45 m tall in the forest, and 10 m in open cultivated areas (Lakshminarayana 1980, Morton 1987, Pennington 1990). The trunk is up to 125 cm in diameter, without buttresses. The bark is light gray to dark brown and deeply fissured. Older trees can be recognized by the presence of diagonal slashes in the trunk made when chicleros extracted the chicle latex. The wood is very strong and pliable, which helps the tree resist the hurricanes that periodically hit the tropical regions (Popenoe 1924). Most species of Manilkara have a uniform structure of wood (Kucachka 1981, Pennington 1991), which does not exhibit any growth rings. Triterpenoids are found in the wood, making it particularly insect and rot-resistant (Hart et al. 1973). The branches exhibit distinctive sympodial branching, and leaves are clustered at the shoot apices. Leaves are 6.6-14.4 cm long and 2.1-5.2 cm wide, elliptic, dark green, and have a glabrous upper surface. The inflorescence is fasciculate, with small, greenish-white or cream colored flowers. There are six stamens, six staminodes and the superior ovary is 8-12 locular (Pennington 1990). The edible fruit is a berry, 3-6 cm in diameter, with brown, rough skin and yellowish or brown flesh. Three to twelve seeds are found in each fruit, and are easily separated from the flesh. The seeds are brown or black, are laterally compressed, with a hard testa and an elongate white scar. Although it can grow at higher altitudes, the preferred range of the tree is 0-1000 m above sea level. Mature trees can tolerate low temperatures of -3? C for several hours, but young trees are killed by anything below -1? C (Morton 1987). The preferred temperature range is 11-34? C. Chicozapote is very drought and salinity resistant, but grows best with well-drained soil and rainfall of 125 - 250 cm/yr. (Chadha 1992, Morton 1987).

The pollinators of chicozapote in the Americas have not been observed, but bats are thought to be a primary candidate, due to the dull flower color, and the densely flowered fascicles that are held below the foliage (Pennington 1990, 1991). In India, wind was thought to be the main pollinator for many years (Patil and Narwadkar 1974, Farooqi and Rao 1976), mainly because no pollen was found on any insects associated with the trees. This view changed because of a study by Reddi (1989), which found that thrips (Thrips hawaiiensis) were the main pollinators, as well as an important pest. Due to the large size of the fruits and seeds, the chicozapote is probably animal-dispersed. This is certainly the case in the Florida Keys, where the fruit plays a significant part in the diet of the Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (Klimstra and Dooley 1990).