Sapote (from

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...

''tzapotl'') is a term for a soft, edible

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

. The word is incorporated into the common names of several unrelated fruit-bearing plants native to southern

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and northern parts of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. It is also known in Caribbean English as soapapple. File:Casimiroa edulis4.jpg,

White sapote The white sapote, scientific name ''Casimiroa edulis'', also called casimiroa and Mexican apple, and known as ''cochitzapotl'' in the Nahuatl language (meaning "sleep-sapote") is a species of tropical fruiting tree in the family Rutaceae, nativ ...

File:Zapotes.jpg, South American sapote File:Vietnamese Sapote.JPG, Sapodilla: "Hồng xiêm'', a kind of Vietnamese sapote File:Mamey.jpg, Mamey sapote File:Manilkara zapota.jpg, Sapodilla File:Canistel-2.jpg, Yellow sapote

Sapotaceae

Some but not all sapotes come from the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Sapotaceae 240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India The Sapotaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology), order Ericales. The family includes about 800 species of ev ...

: * 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 ''Pouteria campechiana'' (commonly known as the cupcake fruit, eggfruit, zapote amarillo or canistel) is an evergreen tree native to, and cultivated in, southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. It is cultivated in other countries ...

'') 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 from the family

Ebenaceae The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768 species of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. It ...

include: * Black sapote ('' Diospyros nigra''), from eastern

south to Colombia, is probably the original

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

''tzapotl''. * Chapote ('' Diospyros texana'') is native to the lower

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio ...

valley region in Texas and Mexico

Other sapote

* White sapote ('' Casimiroa edulis'':

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Der ...

) is native to northern and central Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. * South American sapote ('' Quararibea cordata'':

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar o ...

) is native to the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. * Sun sapote ('' Licania platypus'':

Chrysobalanaceae Chrysobalanaceae is a family of flowering plants, consisting of trees and shrubs in 27 genera and about 700 species of pantropical distribution with a centre of diversity in the Amazon. Some of the species contain silica in their bodies for rigi ...

) is native to southern

south to Colombia.

References

{{Plant common name Nahuatl words and phrases Tropical fruit Crops originating from the Americas