Sapodilla's Turn

Let's move on to another exotic tropical fruit grown in abundance at The Farm.

Introducing the Sapodilla or its Latin name Manilkara zapota. 


Originating from Central America where it is known as zapote, Sapodilla comes in many names: locally it is known as Ciku or Sawo nilo. Spanish explorers who introduced this fruit to the Philippines called them chiko.

The English call it "tree potato", or "nasberry plum".

In some countries Sapodilla is cultivated for their gum or latex (e.g for making chewing gum in Mexico, Guatamala, Salvador and Northern Honduras).

The fruit is sweet tasting - often described as a mixture of brown sugar and root beer. It is loaded with vitamins too. Go here for a complete write-up on its nutrient value.

Over at The Farm I keep a close watch as it develops from flower to fruit:

Unlike the Durian which can grow to more than a hundred feet tall, Sapodilla's average height is only 10 feet, even lower with constant pruning.

Since there are so many ripe fruits I often share them with the birds:

The Birds and The Bees

Sunrise on The Farm. It is going to be another glorious day!

It is the start of the fruit season too.

The King of fruits as you know had started flowering earlier. I can't show you much progress except that there are now more and bigger flowers.

The next stage will be anthesis - when the anther will burst open exposing the pollen-covered stamens. The birds and the bees (and moi) are all waiting for this. With proper pollination there'll be heavy fruiting.

The first fruit will drop (remember, we don't harvest durian - they drop by themselves when ripe) ninety days from anthesis. I'm predicting anthesis in about a week. So we will get some durian around March 2011. You can start placing your orders for the King now... ;)

Another great pollinators of durians are the bats (Eonycteris speleae). A couple flew into the Farm House to start nesting, but unfortunately for them, and pour moi, they were hit by the ceiling fan. Hopefully their next of kins will come by. I need all the help I can get.

Do not however confuse the bats with flying foxes (Pteropus vampyrus). You do NOT want them on your farm.

The bees in the meantime are not without food. The rambutans and longans are flowering too. So are the cikus (sapodilla). Take a look at the busy bees, while I snap photos of some birds, from a distance...

Pollinating the Longan

Flowering Rambutan trees amongst the Durian

Insects having fun time with the nectar

And the Bees helping themselves, and making sure
we get abundance of fruits later - Fair dinkum?

Sapodilla is another fruit found in abundance on The Farm. Locally it is known as Ciku, or Sawo Nilo. To the botanist it is Manilkara zapota. It is available all year round at various stages - flowers, young fruits, and matured ones - shown below:

Birds - various species of birds have come to make The Farm their home.

So far with the 55 - 250mm zoom lens attached to my Cannon 550 D, I'm only able to take tiny images of them, sometimes only silhouettes! Obviously I need bigger zoom...take a look at these anyway:

Can you see the yellow bird?

It then flew off and landed on this dead branch

Here it is again

Those on the fencing pillars are Pigeons - normally one
then joined by another. Can't get much nearer to them
than this (about 30ft), I'm afraid

For much better and really beautiful pics of birds (complete with names) pop over to bird enthusiast John Saunders.

My follower Cheryl, from yesterday's post, can be found here.

OK dokay, all that's left for me to do is to extend a big WELCOME to The Farm to Rosalie Rigby, my brand new follower. She does beautiful artwork by the Australian countryside. Check out her paintings here.