Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Common name(s): [more details]

English: cainito, star apple

French: caïmitier

Maori (Cook Islands): urua‘eke

Palauan: kaimito

Samoan: pipi o‘eva

Spanish: caimito, mamey

Habit:  tree

Description:  "A tree to 25 m high, usually smaller, the bole becoming slightly fluted with age.  The colour of the bark varies from pale greyish to dark brownish-black, depending on exposure, and it is deeply and narrowly fissured, often suberous.  The exudate is abundant, white.  The crown is characteristic and easily spotted from a distance because of the dark glossy upper leaf surface, and shining golden pubescence on the lower surface.  The flowers are greenish to cream-white, fragrant, and the ripe fruit usually purple, though a yellow-skinned form is also known"

"Tree; young growth golden or golden-ferruginous sericeous eventually glabrous, greyish-brown, smooth or cracked, lenticellate or not.  Leaves spaced, alternate and distichous, 4.5-15.5 x 2.5-6.9 cm, broadly elliptic to oblong elliptic, apex shortly broadly attenuate or cuspidate to obtuse or rounded, base narrowly or broadly attenuate or cuneate, upper surface glabrous or occasionally with some residual indumentum along the midrib, lower surface golden or golden-ferruginous sericeous; venation brochidodromous, secondary veins often looping to form a submarginal vein, marginal vein sometimes conspicuous, midrib sunken on the upper surface, secondaries 14-26 pairs, arcuate, parallel; inter-secondaries long; tertiaries parallel to the secondaries and descending from the margin.  Petiole (0.9) 1-2 cm long, channeled, sericeous.  Fasicicles 5-20 (-30)-flowered.  Pedicel 0.6-1.2 cm long, sericeous.  Flowers bisexual.  Sepals (4-) 5 (-6), 1.5-2 mm long, broadly ovate to suborbicular, apex rounded, outside sericeous, inside appressed puberulous to glabrous, margin often hyaline.  Corolla 3.5-4 mm long, tube about equaling the lobes, lobes 5-6, ovate or triangular, apex acute to rounded, outside sericeous, indumentum often confined to the centre of the lobes, inside glabrous.  Stamens 5-6, fixed at the top of the corolla tube or base of the lobes; filaments 0.3-0.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 0.4-0.8 mm long, lanceolate, glabrous.  Staminodes absent, or rarely present, in a single whorl alternating with the stamens, up to 1 mm long.  Ovary broadly ovoid to globose, (8-) 9-11-locular, appressed pubescent; style 0.1-0.3 mm long after anthesis, glabrous; style-head (8-) 9-11-lobed.  Fruit 4-7 cm long, broadly ellipsoid to globose, apex and base obtuse to rounded, smooth, glabrous; pericarp fleshy.  Seeds 3-10, 1-1.8 cm long, usually laterally compressed, with a smooth shining testa 0.2-1 mm thick; scar adaxial, 0.6-1.3 cm long, always more than half the length of the seed, about equaling the width of the seed, often with a small rounded beak near the apex; embryo with thick flat cotyledons and exserted radicle, endosperm equaling or slightly thicker than the cotyledons"  (Pennington, 1990; pp. 552, 554).

Habitat/ecology:  "It is cultivated and becomes naturalized under a wide range of climatic conditions from sea level to 1000 m altitude.  In Panama it occurs under conditions which support seasonal semi-deciduous forest, evergreen lowland and montane forest.  In Cuba and Hispaniola it occurs in dry forest or scrub over limestone at low elevations" (Pennington, 1990; pp. 552, 554).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  "Widely cultivated and naturalized throughout Central and South America and in the West Indies, but probably native only in the Greater Antilles"  (Pennington, 1990; pp. 552, 554).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) Northern Mariana Islands	Rota Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1979) (p. 204)
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (US) Northern Mariana Islands	Saipan Island	introduced	Raulerson, L. (2006) (p. 54) ?
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	‘Atiu Island	introduced cultivated	McCormack, Gerald (2007)
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	Mangaia Island	introduced cultivated	McCormack, Gerald (2007)
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	Ma‘uke Island	introduced cultivated	McCormack, Gerald (2007)
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	Miti‘aro Island	introduced cultivated	McCormack, Gerald (2007)
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	Rarotonga Island	introduced cultivated	McCormack, Gerald (2007)
Federated States of Micronesia Pohnpei Islands	Pohnpei Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1979) (p. 204)
Fiji Fiji Islands	Taveuni Island	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1981) (p. 765) Voucher cited: Gillespie 4637
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1981) (p. 765) Vouchers cited: DA 9664, DA 1588, DA 3125, DA 1587
French Polynesia Society Islands	Huahine Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R. (1997) (p. 138)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Moorea Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R. (1997) (p. 138)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Raiatea (Havai) Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R. (1997) (p. 138)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Taha‘a Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R. (1997) (p. 138)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R. (1997) (p. 138)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tetiaroa Atoll	introduced	Sachet, M.-H./Fosberg, F. R. (1983) (p. 49) Voucher cited: Fosberg 54589 (US) One plant seen.lphanumeric
Guam Guam Island	Guam Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1979) (p. 204)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawaiian Islands	introduced cultivated	Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral/Imada, Clyde T. (2000) (p. 29)
Nauru Nauru Island	Nauru Island	introduced cultivated	Thaman, R. R./Fosberg, F. R./Manner, H. I./Hassall, D. C. (1994) (p. 194)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (pp. 127-128) Vouchers cited: MacKee 14167, Corbasson in MacKee 18435, Cherrier in MacKee 40306, MacKee 40729, MacKee perez in MacKee 43449
Niue Niue	Niue Island	introduced cultivated	Sykes, W. R. (1970) (p. 188) Voucher cited: CHR 168899. Present status unknown.
Palau Palau (main island group)	Palau Islands (main island group)	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1979) (p. 204)
United States (other Pacific offshore islands) Wake Islands	Wake Island	introduced cultivated	Fosberg, F. R. (1959) (p. 17) Potted plant seen in 1952.
United States (other Pacific offshore islands) Wake Islands	Wake Island	introduced	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, M.-H. (1969) (p. 13) Not seen in 1961 or 1963.

Comments:  Reported as possibly an invasive plant in the Galápagos Islands per Charles Darwin Research Station.

Additional information:  Information from the World Agroforestry Centre's AgroForestryTree Database.

Additional online information about Chrysophyllum cainito is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Chrysophyllum cainito may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Fosberg, F. R. 1959. Vegetation and flora of Wake Island. Atoll Research Bulletin 67. Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington. 20 pp.

Fosberg, F. R. 1997. Preliminary checklist of the flowering plants and ferns of the Society Islands. Ed. by David R. Stoddart. U. Cal. Berkeley.

Fosberg, F. R./Otobed, D./Sachet, M.-H./Oliver, R. L./Powell, D. A./Canfield, J. E. 1980. Vascular plants of Palau with vernacular names. Department of Botany, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 43 pp.

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, M.-H. 1969. Wake Island vegetation and flora, 1961-1963. Atoll Research Bulletin No. 123. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 15 pp.

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce. 1979. A geographical checklist of the Micronesian dicotyledonae. Micronesica 15:1-295.

MacKee, H. S. 1994. Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 164 p.

McCormack, Gerald. 2007. Cook Islands biodiversity and natural heritage. On-line database.

Pennington, T. D. 1990. Flora Neotropica, Mon. 52:1-770.

Raulerson, L. 2006. Checklist of Plants of the Mariana Islands. University of Guam Herbarium Contribution 40:1-69. .

Sachet, M.-H./Fosberg, F. R. 1983. An ecological reconnaissance of Tetiaroa Atoll, Society Islands. Atoll Research Bulletin No. 275. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 67 pp. + photos.

Smith, Albert C. 1981. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 2. 810 pp.

Smith, Lyman B./Downs, Robert Jack. 1979. Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae). Flora Neotropica, Mon. 14(3):1493-2142.

Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral/Imada, Clyde T. 2000. Survey of invasive or potentially invasive cultivated plants in Hawai‘i. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers No. 65. 35 pp.

Sykes, W. R. 1970. Contributions to the flora of Niue. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Bulletin 200, Wellington. 321 pp.

Thaman, R. R./Fosberg, F. R./Manner, H. I./Hassall, D. C. 1994. The flora of Nauru. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Atoll Research Bulletin 392:1-223.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2007. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Whistler, W. A. 1984. Annotated list of Samoan plant names. Economic Botany 38:464.489.