Manilkara bidentata (A.DC.) A.Chev.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Sapotaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree 10-15 m tall; bark light brown, smooth; branches dark brown, glabrous, slightly angled, becoming lenticellate. Leaf blades 15-26 x 6-10.2 cm, elliptic, oblong, obovate, or oblanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous but usually with a waxy covering, midvein stout, prominent beneath, the apex obtuse, rounded, acute, shortly acuminate and usually notched, the base obtuse to attenuate, the margins entire; petioles glabrous, 1.5-3.5 cm long; stipules wanting. Flowers 2-12 in axillary fascicles; pedicels 9- 25 mm long, glabrous. Calyx cup-shaped, the sepals 6, 4-6 mm long, inner ones puberulent without; corolla cream-colored to white, 3-6 mm long, glabrous, the tube 0.5-1.5 mm long, the lobes 6, divided to base into 3 segments; stamens 6, the filaments 1.5-2.5 mm long, free or basally connate to the staminodes, the anthers 1-2 mm long; staminodes 6, 1-3.5 mm long, lanceolate with variable margins; ovary broadly ovoid, glabrous, 6-12-locular, the style subulate, 3-6 mm long. Berry 1-2-seeded, ellipsoid to globose, 1.5-3 cm long, brown. Seeds 0.9-2.6 cm long, laterally compressed, smooth, brown.
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Discussion
Common name: bullet.
Cultivated species: Manilkara zapota (L.) P. Royen, the edible sapote, is occasionally cultiva
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Distribution
An occasional tree of moist forests. Bordeaux (A2102, B574). Also on Tortola; the West Indies, Panama to northern South America.
Panama Central America| West Indies| Tortola Virgin Islands South America|