Chrysophyllum cainito Caimito

fourth photo is from
http://www.fairchildgarden.org/


Family: Sapotaceae •
Genus: Chrysophyllum •
Species: cainito (L.) •
Country of Origin: West Indies and Central America •
Common Names: Star Apple, Golden-Leaf Tree, Caimito •

This delicious fruit is also a favorite of the June bugs as you can see by the chewed up leaves pesky little stinkers!

Caimito trees are medium to large trees, 25 to 100 ft tall (7.9 to 30.5 m) with a round to oval canopy. Branches have a weeping growth habit. The leaves are alternate, elliptic, 2 to 6 inches long (5-15 cm), slightly leathery, shiny green on the upper surface and golden-brown on the lower surface.
The flowers are generally held in clusters, arising from the leaf axils. Flowers are very small, greenish-yellow to purplish-white, tubular (5-lobed corolla), with 5–6 sepals.

Fruit may be round to oblate to ellipsoid and 2 to 4 inches in diameter (5-10 cm). The peel may be red-purple, dark-purple, or pale-green. It is smooth, glossy, and leathery. In purple fruits, the inner rind is dark purple, and in green fruits, white. The pulp is white, soft, and milky surrounding 6 to 11 seeds. The seeds are contained in rubbery seed cells, and each seed is surrounded by a gelatinous pulp. When the fruit is cut transversely, the seed cells are seen to radiate outwardly from a central core, producing a star-shaped pattern.
more info on Caimito
edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS309



Chrysophyllum cainito Caimito by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com