Species
+

Manilkara zapota (L.) P.Royen

Breiaapelbuum, Chaté, Chico, Chiku

Climate known 42 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Manilkara zapota, commonly known as sapodilla, sapote, chicozapote, chico, chicoo, chicle, naseberry, nispero, or soapapple, among other names, is an evergreen tree native to southern Mexico and Central America. An example of natural occurrence is in coastal Yucatán, in the Petenes mangroves ecoregion, where it is a subdominant plant species. It was introduced to the Philippines during Spanish colonization. It is grown in large quantities in Mexico and in tropical Asia, including India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, as well as in the Caribbean.

Text from Wikipedia, “Manilkara zapota”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Manilkara

Manilkara is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. A close relative is the genus Pouteria.

Text from Wikipedia, “Manilkara”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Sapotaceae
Described by
(L.) P.Royen
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +11
Wild records
479 in range· 371 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
May, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1357mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 226 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1357 mm a year, wettest September at 226 mm, driest March at 34 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Achradelpha mammosa (L.) O.F.Cook; Achras breviloba (Gilly) Lundell; Achras calderonii (Gilly) Lundell; Achras conzattii (Gilly) Lundell; Achras coriacea Lundell and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1050 mm of 1357 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 25.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1357 mm a year, wettest September at 226 mm, driest March at 34 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1357 mm a year at the habitat, 1050 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 226 mm, driest March at 34 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1005 mm to 2584 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.5 °C, the absolute minimum 9.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 15.1 °C to 22.6 °C), warmest day 31.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jan to 32 °C in May; mean night from 19 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1357 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 386 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°39.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–40RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 386 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 23–3028 / 25–3130 / 26–3331 / 28–3532 / 28–3531 / 27–3430 / 27–3430 / 27–3430 / 27–3229 / 26–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–29
Night °C19 / 15–2320 / 16–2321 / 17–2422 / 19–2524 / 20–2524 / 21–2624 / 20–2524 / 20–2523 / 20–2522 / 19–2421 / 17–2420 / 16–23
Rain mm47 / 13–10536 / 11–7734 / 12–6144 / 20–89104 / 58–217185 / 139–348173 / 118–358182 / 142–375226 / 165–408180 / 102–33191 / 36–20555 / 19–143
DLI25 / 24–3430 / 28–3836 / 34–4140 / 36–4440 / 33–4336 / 31–4037 / 32–4137 / 32–4033 / 30–3629 / 27–3226 / 24–3124 / 22–31
RH %62 / 57–6761 / 56–6659 / 54–6559 / 54–6661 / 56–6865 / 60–6964 / 60–6965 / 61–6967 / 63–7065 / 62–7164 / 59–7063 / 58–69

Each figure is the median across the 386 grid cells holding the 476 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1431:1818 (18.425, -89.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 386 distinct grid cells holding the 476 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1431:1818 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-89.375, lapse-corrected -82 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 128 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia· introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Bangladesh, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Vanuatu, Society Is., Florida, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.328, -88.295 · in the densest population, 162 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 479 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 371 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 560 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 479 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Manilkara zapotaManilkara zapotaManilkara zapotaManilkara zapotaManilkara zapotaManilkara zapotaManilkara zapotaManilkara zapota

Photographs: (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) João Arthur Rabello, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Manilkara zapota, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Bioactive Novel Polyphenols from the Fruit of Manilkara zapota (Sapodilla)
Jun Ma, Xiao‐Dong Luo, Petr Protiva, Hui Yang (2003) · Journal of Natural Products
Evaluation of Anti-Quorum-Sensing Activity of Edible Plants and Fruits through Inhibition of the N-Acyl-Homoserine Lactone System in Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Khadar Syed Musthafa, Arumugam Veera Ravi, Angusamy Annapoorani, Issac Abraham Sybiya Vasantha Packiavathy (2010) · Chemotherapy
Green synthesis of multi-color emissive carbon dots from Manilkara zapota fruits for bioimaging of bacterial and fungal cells
Jigna R. Bhamore, Sanjay Jha, Tae Jung Park, Suresh Kumar Kailasa (2019) · Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Determination of antibacterial and antioxidant potential of some medicinal plants from Saurashtra Region, India
S. Chanda, Mital Kaneria, Yogesh Baravalia, Yogeshkumar Vaghasiya (2009) · Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Antimicrobial activity of Terminalia catappa, Manilkara zapota and Piper betel leaf extract
Sumitra Chanda, Rathish Nair (2008) · Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Understanding Long-Term Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) Population Dynamics: Implications for Areawide Management
Martı́n Aluja, Mariano Ordano, Larissa Guillén, Juan Rull (2012) · Journal of Economic Entomology
Diversity of genus Lasiodiplodia associated with perennial tropical fruit plants in northeastern Brazil
I. B. L. Coutinho, F. C. O. Freire, Cristiano S. Lima, Joílson Silva Lima (2016) · Plant Pathology
Thermal studies on natural polysaccharide
Sunil B. Bothara, Sudarshan Singh (2012) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 124 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.