Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Other Latin names:  Quararibea cordata (Bonpl.) Vischer

Common name(s): [more details]

English: South American sapote

Spanish: sapote, sapote de monte, sapotillo, zapote

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Tree, 15 meters, light brown bark, thick gummy yellow sap; attains 40 meters, said to be cultivated for its edible fruits.  Much branched above a straight cylindrical rugose trunk, the branchlets green; petioles hardly as long as the cordate suborbicular leaves, these to 3 dm long and nearly as wide, membranous, glabrous, 7-nerved at base; fascicles of 3-several pale rose flowers on the branches, the pedicels with 2 or 3 bracts near base; calyx 2-5-lobed, tomentose within and without; corolla sub-bilabiate, about half again as long as calyx, 2 petals a little smaller than the other 3, all obovate; stamen tube with 5 linear lobes with about 12 anthers on each lobe; style shorter than stamens, puberulent as the 5-angled ovary, the stigma 5-sulcate capitate; fruit oval, 1-1.5 cm long, tomentose, 5-celled, 5-seeded" (Macbride, 1956).

Habitat/ecology:  (no habitat/ecology info known by PIER)

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Costa Rica, Panama and western South America (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) San Cristóbal Group	San Cristóbal Island	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Santa Cruz Group	Santa Cruz Island	introduced cultivated	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Costa Rica Costa Rica	Costa Rica (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Panama Panama	Panama (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Perú Perú	Perú (Republic of)	native	Jørgensen, Peter Møller/León-Yánez, Susana, eds. (1999) (pp. 615-616)

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

Additional information:  Morton, J. 1987. Chupa-Chupa. p. 291-292. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL.

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

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

References:

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Jørgensen, Peter Møller/León-Yánez, Susana, eds. 1999. Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares del Ecuador. Mon. Syst. Bot. Miss. Bot. Gard. 75:1-1181.

Macbride, J. Francis. 1936. Flora of Peru. Field Museum of Natural History, Botanical Series, Vol. XIII. 1936-1971, 6 parts.

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