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Sapodilla

Manilkara zapota-- Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants

Manilkara zapota

Non-Native to Florida

sapodilla

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Download a page (PDF 159 KB) from Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition, by K.A. Langeland, H.M. Cherry, et al. University of Florida-IFAS Pub SP 257. 2008.

For control information, see Integrated Management of Nonnative Plants in Natural Areas of Florida (SP 242)
by K. A. Langeland, J. A. Ferrell, B. Sellers, G. E. MacDonald, and R. K. Stocker

Date of introduction to Florida: 1883 (agriculture)

(from Strangers in Paradise, Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida, Chapter 2: Florida’s Invasion by Nonindigenous Plants: History, Screening, and Regulation, by D.R. Gordon and K.P. Thomas, pp. 21-37. Island Press, Washington, DC, 1997.)

 

    The huge sapodilla tree provides much shade, and is prized by some, but it is a non-native on the Florida EPPC List #1. It is occasionally found in hammocks and disturbed sites of Lee and Palm Beach Counties (Wunderlin, 2003). It is native to Central America.

    Appearance: Evergreen tree to about 20 m (66 ft) high with stout trunk. Branchlets brownish-hairy.

    Leaves: Alternate and often crowded at end of branchlets; young leaves are downy and brownish beneath.

    Flowers: White on long stalks from leaf axils, tubular; tube up to 5 mm (0.2 in) long, 6-lobed.

    Fruit: Brown with rough skin, up to 8 cm (3 in) across; brownish, mealy pulp; containing hard black seeds.

    Ecological threat: FLEPPC Category I – Invasive exotics that are altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives.

    Distribution: SW, SE

    Text from Invasive and Non-Native Plants You Should Know, Recognition Cards, by A. Richard and V. Ramey, 2007. UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, Publ. No. SP 431.

    Download the Recognition Card (PDF 938 KB).

     

    See the UF/IFAS Assessment, which lists plants according to their invasive status in Florida.

    sapodilla View the herbarium specimen image of the University of Florida Herbarium Digital Imaging Projects.