1191

 Manilkara zapota (L.) P.Royen

Synonym	:	Achradelpha mammosa (L.) O.F.Cook
Family	:	Sapotaceae
Local name	:	English - Chiku Malayalam-  Sappota
Flowering and fruiting period	:	February-June
Distribution	:	All Districts
Distribution in Kerala	:	Native of South America; widely cultivated in the tropics
Habitat	:	Cultivated
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses	:	Edible fruit
Key botanical characters:    Trees, to 15 m high, young parts covered with brown hairs; exudation milky white latex. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered towards the apex of branchlets; petiole 10-30 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 7-15.5 ×2.5-4.5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-obovate or elliptic-oblanceolate, base acute or attenuate, apex slightly acuminate with retuse tip, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves many parallel, slender, faint, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers bisexual, white, solitary or in pairs from the axils of upper leaves; pedicels 0.8-2 cm long, scurfy; sepals 6, 3+3; 6.5-10 mm long; corolla 0.7-1.1 cm long, campanulate, greenish-white or cream; lobes 6, irregularly 2-3 toothed; stamens 6, inserted at the top of the corolla tube; filaments free or partly fused with the staminodes; anthers extrorse; staminodes 6, alternating with the stamens, bifid, laciniate, irregularly divided; disc annular, tomentose; ovary superior, hairy, many celled, ovules many; style terminal. Fruit a berry, 3.5-8 × 3-6 cm, ovoid or ellipsoid, scaly; seeds 1.5-2.5 cm long, many, black.