What is "sapote"

n. The soft, edible fruit of various South American trees, including the sapodilla.

1. n. tropical American tree having wood like mahogany and sweet edible egg-shaped fruit; in some classifications placed in the genus Calocarpum [syn: marmalade tree, mammee, Pouteria zapota, Calocarpum zapota]

2. brown oval fruit flesh makes excellent sherbet [syn: mammee, marmalade plum]

Sapote (from Nahuatl tzapotl) is a term for a soft, edible fruit. The word is incorporated into the common names of several unrelated fruit-bearing plants native to Mexico, Central America and northern parts of South America.

Some but not all sapotes come from the family Sapotaceae:

• Sapotaceae sapotes:
  • Sapodilla, also called naseberry ( Manilkara zapota) is native to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, and possibly El Salvador. The Sapotaceae were named after a synonym of this species.
  • Yellow sapote ( Pouteria campechiana) is native to Mexico and Central America.
  • Mamey sapote ( Pouteria sapota) is from southern Mexico to northern South America.
  • Green sapote ( Pouteria viridis) is native to lowland southern Mexico.
• Ebenaceae sapotes:
  • Black sapote ( Diospyros nigra), from eastern Mexico south to Colombia, is probably the original Aztec tzapotl.
  • Chapote ( Diospyros texana) is native to the lower Rio Grande valley region in Texas and Mexico
• Other sapotes
  • White sapote ( Casimiroa edulis: Rutaceae) is native to northern and central Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala.
  • South American sapote ( Quararibea cordata: Malvaceae) is native to the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

digyna 2.jpg| Black sapote edulis4.jpg| White sapote | South American sapote Sapote.JPG|Lòng mứt, a kind of Vietnamese sapote | Mamey sapote zapota.jpg| Sapodilla | Yellow sapote