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White Sapote. A tropical fruit (Fig. 3547). The zapote blanco of the Mexicans (Casimiroa edulis), known in California and Florida as white sapote, is a fruit little cultivated outside of Mexico, but occasionally seen in the southernmost parts of the United States, in the West Indies, and even in the Orient, where it is probably of recent introduction. Horticulturally, it has been given more attention in southern California than in any other region. (P. 680.)
Casimiroa edulis, Llav. & Lex. White Sapote. Cochil Sapota. Large tree: trunk ashen gray, with warty excrescences: lvs. dark green, glossy: fls. greenish yellow, small: fr. greenish yellow when ripe, with strong, thick epicarp, ½in. thick, about the size of an orange; seeds nearly 1 in. long and half as wide. Mex.—The fr. of this species has a delicious flavor, similar to that of a peach. It is used in Mex. as an aid in inducing sleep, and the lvs. as a remedy for diarrhea. It grows on the coast of Mex. to an altitude of about 7,000 ft. See Sapote, White.
White Sapote. A tropical fruit. The zapote blanco of the Mexicans (Casimiroa edulis), known in California and Florida as white sapote, is a fruit little cultivated outside of Mexico, but occasionally seen in the southernmost parts of the United States, in the West Indies, and even in the Orient, where it is probably of recent introduction. Horticulturally, it has been given more attention in southern California than in any other region.
The tree reaches an ultimate height of 50 feet or more, with a short stout trunk, often covered with warty excrescences around the base, and a broad erect crown, sometimes spreading and dome-shaped, under favorable conditions densely foliaged and of very attractive and ornamental appearance. The bark is somewhat rough, ashen gray when mature, and dotted with numerous warty light gray lenticels. The leaves are alternate, digitate, borne upon long slender petioles and composed of three to seven, commonly five, elliptical to lanceolate, acuminate leaflets, coppery when young but eventually of glossy bright, green color. The small greenish flowers, less than 1/2 inch in diameter, are produced in spring on short axillary panicles, and are composed of a four- or five-parted calyx, with short acute pubescent segments, and a four- or five-petaled greenish corolla, valvate in the bud, with small oblong-elliptic acute concave petals; the stamens are as numerous as the petals and alternating with them, with short filaments and small oblong anthers; the ovary is superior, five-celled, globose, bearing at its apex a three- to five-lobed sessile stigma.
The tree reaches an ultimate height of 50 feet or more, with a short stout trunk, often covered with warty excrescences around the base, and a broad erect crown, sometimes spreading and dome-shaped, under favorable conditions densely foliaged and of very attractive and ornamental appearance. The bark is somewhat rough, ashen gray when mature, and dotted with numerous warty light gray lenticels. The leaves are alternate, digitate, borne upon long slender petioles and composed of three to seven, commonly five, elliptical to lanceolate, acuminate leaflets, coppery when young but eventually of glossy bright, green color. The small greenish flowers, less than 1/2 inch in diameter, are produced in spring on short axillary panicles, and are composed of a four- or five-parted calyx, with short acute pubescent segments, and a four- or five-petaled greenish corolla, valvate in the bud, with small oblong-elliptic acute concave petals; the stamens are as numerous as the petals and alternating with them, with short filaments and small oblong anthers; the ovary is superior, five-celled, globose, bearing at its apex a three- to five-lobed sessile stigma.