Description

Taxonomy

The chicozapote has had a very long and confusing taxonomic history. In his 1990 monograph on the Sapotaceae, Pennington lists fifty-seven synonyms of Manilkara zapota. The current accepted binomial for chicozapote is Manilkara zapota (Linnaeus) van Royen, Blumea 7(2): 410. The species was originally described as Achras sapota by Linnaeus, and has been transferred, split and combined several times (Gilly 1943, Fosberg 1964, Moore and Stearn 1967). Based upon small variations in floral characters, Lundell (1976, 1977,1978) created several new species names for the chicozapote, including a new genus, Manilkariopsis. These differences were rejected as non-diagnostic by Pennington (1990), who stated: ". . . floral variations, such as the shape and size of the staminodes, and the occasional presence of indumentum on the corolla or staminodes, which have formed the basis of several recently described species . . ., are regarded as no more than the normal intraspecific variation to be expected in an outbreeding species." The chicozapote's closest relative within the genus, Manilkara staminodella Gilly (Pennington 1990), is found in Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Yucatan peninsula, where it is associated with chicozapote. The two species differ in a few floral characters that remain constant throughout their range. M. staminodella (common names: chicle de segunda, chiquibul, tijerillo) is often confused with the chicozapote and is sometimes tapped for chicle. Manilkara is a pan-tropical genus with thirty species in the Americas, twenty in Africa, and Madagascar and fifteen in Asia and the Pacific. The main differences between the species of Manilkara are "variation[s] in the degree of development of the corolla lobe segments and staminodes" (Pennington 1991, p. 132). All species in the genus have a white or cream-colored latex, and most have edible fruit.