Black sapote
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Black sapote ( Diospyros nigra ) |
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The black sapote ( Diospyros nigra ) is like the Kakibaum ( Diospyros kaki ) a representative of the ebony trees ( Diospyros ). The home of this evergreen deciduous tree is Mexico and Guatemala . However, the species is also planted in other areas in Central America because of the edible fruits . Since the fruit tastes like chocolate or chocolate pudding, it is also known as chocolate pudding fruit .
description
The black sapote is an evergreen , deeply branched tree up to 25 meters high with a dense and spreading crown and blackish, furrowed to scaly bark . There are smaller roots .
The leaves are alternate. The dark green leaf blade is elliptical, oblong or lanceolate to obovate, -eilanceolate, pointed or rounded and narrowed to a point at the base. It is entire, bare, coarse leathery and reaches a length of 30 centimeters and a width of 15 centimeters. The upper side of the leaf is slightly shiny, the lighter underside is matt. The petiole is plump and about 1.5 inches long.
The flowers are unisexual or bisexual, an exact distribution is not known. The flowers have a short stalk and stand individually or in groups of up to seven individual flowers in the leaf axils. The green and bare calyx is cup-shaped with four to six large, wavy, curved, plump tips. The crown is an urn-shaped tube with four to six small, turned-back, roof-tiled and rounded crown tips. It is 1 to 1.5 centimeters long and green-yellow in color. The short stamens are located below in the corolla tube. The ovary is upper constant, the stylus is short with a lobed stigma .
The fruits are short-stalked, roundish, sometimes slightly ribbed berries that can reach a size of 10–13 centimeters or more. The calyx, which can reach a size of 4 to 5 centimeters, remains at the base of the fruit. The leathery fruit skin is smooth, thin and rough. The color of the fruits is initially green, when ripe it is green-brown, to dark brown, blackish. The pulp is yellowish at first and later becomes chocolate brown. It is pasty and has a mild, sweetish-nutty taste. In each fruit up to twelve seeds are formed, which are arranged in a star shape, often there are no seeds. The seeds are flattened and elliptical, 20–28 millimeters long and up to 18 millimeters wide with a thickness of up to 8 millimeters. The smooth seed coats are hard, minimally textured and have an orange-brown sheen. In the Mexican lowlands, it blooms in March and bears fruit from July to September.
Distribution and location requirements
The black sapote comes from Mexico and Guatemala. It is grown in southern North America, the West Indies, and the Philippines . It is rarely planted in other tropical and subtropical areas. The black sapote grows both in the subtropical lowlands and at higher altitudes in the tropics. She is sensitive to frost.
Systematics and botanical history
The black sapote ( Diospyros nigra ) is a species from the genus of the ebony trees ( Diospyros ) in the ebony family (Ebenaceae). The first description of Basionyms Sapota nigra was made in 1791 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in Systema Naturae 750. The re-allocation to the genus Diospyros was made in 1825 by George Samuel Perrottet in Mém. Soc. Linn. Paris 3: 113. Other synonyms are Diospyros digyna Jacq. , Diospyros edulis Lodd. ex Sweet , Diospyros obtusifolia Kunth , Diospyros sapota Roxb. , Diospyros nigra Blanco u. a.
The generic name Diospyros was introduced by Carl von Linné and referred to the lotus plum ( Diospyros lotus ) and the persimmon ( Diospyros virginiana ). The expression comes from the Greek and consists of the two parts dios for the god Zeus and pyros for wheat . The expression can therefore be translated as "Zeus wheat". In ancient times it was used to refer to the common whitebeam ( Sorbus aria ) or the European hackberry ( Celtis australis ).
use
The brown pulp of ripe berries resembles plum jam and can be spooned out of the fruit peel without preparation or used as a spread. Prepared with milk or the juice of citrus fruits, it is eaten as a dessert, mixed with water, milk or the juices of other fruits, it is used as a drink. The taste of the fruit is similar to that of chocolate. This is why the plant is sometimes referred to as chocolate pudding fruit . Alcoholic beverages can be made from fermented fruits. The fruits are rich in vitamin C , calcium and phosphorus . Decoctions of leaves and bark are said to help against fever, skin diseases and leprosy . The dark yellow and black grained wood is seldom used to make furniture.
The trees bear plenty of fruit for two to three months. Fruits intended for the market are picked when they are still green and can be stored for about two weeks without refrigeration. Propagation is usually done by seeds. In areas with little precipitation, the trees are irrigated.
literature
- Bernd Nowak, Bettina Schulz: Pocket dictionary of tropical crops and their fruits . Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-494-01455-5 , p. 242-244 .
- Jules Janick, Robert E. Paull: The Encyclopedia of Fruit and Nuts. CABI, 2008, ISBN 0-85199-638-8 , p. 324 ff.
Web links
- Diospyros dignya at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Black Sapote at Growables, accessed September 15, 2019.
- Black Sapote at Purdue.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nowak, Schulz: Pocket dictionary of tropical useful plants and their fruits , p. 242
- ↑ Nowak, Schulz: Pocket dictionary of tropical useful plants and their fruits , p. 243
- ^ Diospyros digyna. In: Ecocrop. FAO , accessed October 30, 2010 .
- ↑ Nowak, Schulz: Pocket dictionary of tropical useful plants and their fruits , pp. 243–244
- ↑ a b c Nowak, Schulz: Pocket dictionary of tropical useful plants and their fruits , p. 244
- ↑ I. M. Turner: Robinson a century on: the nomenclatural relevance of Roxburgh's Hortus Bengalensis. In: Taxon. Volume 62, Number 1, 2013, 152–172.
- ^ The Plant List
- ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-937872-16-7 , p. 210 (reprint from 1996).
- ↑ Tastes like chocolate pudding on heilpraxisnet.de, accessed on June 22, 2017.