English: Sapodilla family; Gutta-percha family.
Botany: ± 65 genera; ± 800 species; trees and shrubs; pantropical.
Use: edible fruits, manilkara, star-apple, sapote, miracle fruit; cosmetics; medications; latex; edible oil.
Name: Zapote family; Nahuatl tzapotl.
TaxonomyIn the
Apg3 classification Sapotaceae is a
Family in the
Ericales, closely related to
Pentaphylacaceae.
Sapotaceae is an unknown family, although it is quite big with 55 genera; 1100 species. It has many fruit trees
SubfamiliesSubfamily Sarcospermatoideae or Sarcospermataceae: Sarcospermata
Subfamily Sapotoideae or Achradaceae, Boerlagellaceae, Bumeliaceae: Madhuca; Manilkara; Mimusops; Palaquium; Sideroxylum.
Subfamily Chrysophylloideae: Chrysophyllum; Micropholis; Planchonella; Pleioluma; Pouteria; Pycnandra.
BotanyBuds rather small, naked terminal, with adpressed, brownish, often T-shaped unicellular hairs; axillary branches often with prominent, basal prophyllar buds and then long internode(s), leaf blades that tend to have rather closely parallel secondary veins and entire margins, and petioles that are bottle-shaped - i.e. swollen at the base - when alive. The twigs usually exude copious gutta-type latex. The flowers, with their prominent sepals and often protruding style, are distinctive, as are their seeds, which are large and have a thick, shiny, brown testa with a very large, pale-colored hilum.