Sapotaceae

=Family description=
 * Trees or shrubs** with usually white latex.
 * Leaves**simple, alternate, sometimes in two rows, rarely opposite, often crowded at twig tip, margin almost always entire; leaves with T-hairs or glabrous, giving lower leaf surface a silvery to golden shine. Stipules often present.
 * Inflorescences** usually glomerulate, axillary or cauliflorous.
 * Flowers** radially symmetric, bisexual or sometimes unisexual (male and female floweres on different plants), usually small. Sepals 4--12 (spiral or in 1-2 whorls), free or basally connate, persistent. Petals 4--12, forming a gamopetalous corolla, sometimes with appendages. Stamens in 1--3 whorls, often partly staminodial, if in 1 whorl, then opposite the petals. Disc, if present, free to partly fused with ovary. Ovary superior, 1--15(--30)-locular, style 1, stigma 1, entire or slightly lobed.
 * Fruit** a berry. Seeds mostly glossy, with a small to very large attachment scar.

=General info=
 * Distribution** About 116 genera with c. 1100 species, widespread in (sub)tropical regions of the world.
 * Ecology** Usually canopy species in closed forests.
 * Uses** Timber (//Palaquium// spp.); Fruits (//Manilkara zapota// i.e., Sapodille); Latex (//Palaquium gutta// i.e., Guttapercha).
 * Similar to** Ebenaceae, but these have no white sap, no T-hairs. Primulaceae (former Myrsinaceae), but these differ in having dark dots on leaves and absence of stipules.

=Treated genera=
 * Chrysophyllum
 * Eberhardtia
 * Madhuca
 * Sarcosperma

Sapotaceae.pdf

Chrysophyllum cainito

Eberhardtia tonkinense

Madhuca kingiana

Sarcosperma paniculatum