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 parti ...

. 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 Gua ...

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. It is also known in Caribbean English as soapapple. File:Casimiroa edulis4.jpg, White sapote File:Zapotes.jpg, South American sapote File:Vietnamese Sapote.JPG, Sapodilla: "Hồng xiêm'', a kind of Vietnamese sapote File:Mamey.jpg,

Mamey sapote ''Pouteria sapota'', the mamey sapote, is a species of tree native to Mexico and Central America. The tree is also cultivated in the Caribbean. Its fruit is eaten in many Latin American countries. The fruit is made into foods such as milksh ...

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. Ideal ...

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 ''Manilkara zapota'', commonly known as sapodilla (), sapote, naseberry, nispero or chicle, is a long-lived, evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. An example natural occurrence is in coastal Yucatán in the ...

'') 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 from the family Ebenaceae 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 G ...

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 Derm ...

) 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. * 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 rigid ...

) is native to southern

south to

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Cari ...

References

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