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View Full Version : Sapote de Perro, Rat Apple (Morisonia americana)


Richard
03-10-2008, 02:50 AM
Common in dry forests from sea level to 600 feet in the Virgin Islands, southwestern Puerto Rico, and other parts of the Caribbean. An evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 25 feet high with a 4 inch diameter trunk, sometimes climbing on trees. The bark is grey to blackish and smooth or slightly fissured, with hard light brown wood. The leaves are 3 to 10 inches long and 1 to 4 inches wide. The plant intermittently flowers and fruits. The fruit has a hard 1/8th inch thick rind with tiny scales. It contains a whitish, slightly aromatic pulp with a peppery taste and numerous seeds. The fruit is rarely consumed by humans but the plant is used as an ornamental shrub or street tree. The Morisonia genus was named after Robert Morison (1620-1683), a professor of botany at Oxford, England.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=8605

JoeReal
03-10-2008, 09:17 AM
What is the cold hardiness of this one? How low a temperature can it survive and for how long?

Richard
03-10-2008, 10:19 AM
What is the cold hardiness of this one? How low a temperature can it survive and for how long?

Joe, that is unknown to me. It is undocumented outside the Caribbean. I also have not seen any documented field work since the 1974 publication "Trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands" by Elbert L. Little, Roy O. Woodbury, and Frank H. Wadsworth (USDA Handbook no. 449, pp. 228-229). You can find it online at National Agricultural Library Digital Repository - Search Portal (http://naldr.nal.usda.gov/NALWeb/SearchAdv.aspx)