Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota)

Botany:
The sapodilla tree is a slow growing evergreen that can reach heights of 100 feet.
Strong and wind-resistant, it maintains an extensive root system. Within the trees
bark is the white, gummy sap the tree is famous for, called chicle. The glossy green
leaves are clustered in spirals at the tip of forked twigs. Sapodilla flowers are small,
bell shaped and cream colored. The fruit is shaped like an egg with rough, brown skin
when ripe, which protects the grainy yellow fruit inside. The ripe sapodilla fruit is
soft, sweet and juicy with a similar taste to a pear. The fruit is tremendously popular
among Central Americans and a favorite of rainforest mammals like howler monkeys,
kinkajous, tapirs, peccaries and bats. Bats, like the Yellow Epauletted Bat and the
Sebas Short-tailed Bat, pollinate the tree while drinking nectar produced by its
flowers. They also carry off the delicious fruit, eventually dropping seeds that may
grow into new trees.

Habitat:
The sapodilla tree is native to southern Mexico, Belize and northeastern Guatemala.
It also grows in the West Indies and the Old World tropics, where it was introduced
for cultivation centuries ago.

Significance to Humans:
The sapodilla tree supplies the building blocks for a number of products utilized by
humans. Long ago, the Mayas and Aztecs would boil its chicle sap, mold it into
thick blocks and cut them into small pieces to chew. They were making the first
chewing gum! In 1866, former Mexican president General Santa Anna brought a
sample of chicle sap to a New York businessman named Thomas Adams. Adams
decided to mix sugar with the chicle, creating a new kind of chewing gum. Producing
chicle is a labor-intensive process. A worker, called a chiclero, must hand harvest the
sap from individual trees by climbing up to 50 feet in order to make zigzag cuts down
the tree, which releases the sap that is then collected in containers. The sapodilla is
also prized for its fruit, considered one of the best fruits in Central America. It can be
eaten raw or made into jam, custard, ice cream and sherbet. The fruit and leaves are
used in traditional medicine to treat diarrhea, coughs and colds. The sapodilla wood is
a deep red color, strong and durable -- it was used for lintels and beams in Maya
temples, which remain intact among the ruins of the Maya buildings. Today, the
timber is used for railway crossties, floorings, tool handles, furniture and cabinets.

Did You Know?

Natural chicle chewing gum represents a very small portion of the chewing gum
market, because of its labor intensive collection. Instead, most chewing gums are
derived from other natural latex, or are made with petroleum-based synthetic gum. In
Mexico, it is illegal to harvest the sapodilla tree because of its value as a chicle
source. In 1999, the Rainforest Alliance certified chicle production in the Yucatn as
its first non-timber forest product, helping to relieve pressure on forests while still
allowing the local people to earn a living.