Jocote

taxobox
name = Jocote

---

regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Eudicots
unranked_ordo = Rosids
ordo = Sapindales
familia = Anacardiaceae
genus = "Spondias"
species = ""'S. purpurea
binomial = "Spondias purpurea"
binomial_authority = L.|

Jocote ("Spondias purpurea") is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. Other common names include Red Mombin, Purple Mombin, Ciruela, or Hog Plum. The name "jocote" derives from the Nahuatl word "xocotl" ("fruit"). [ [http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?LEMA=jocote Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary] ]

It is a small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall. The leaves are deciduous in the short dry season, but only fall shortly before the new leaves develop; they are pinnate, with 7-23 leaflets, each leaflet 3-5 cm long and 1.5-2 cm broad. The flowers are small, reddish-purple, produced in large panicles. The fruit is an edible oval drupe, 3-5 cm long and 2-3.5 cm broad, ripening red (occasionally yellow) and containing a single large seed.

It is now widely cultivated in tropical regions throughout the world for its edible fruit (it is eaten with salt before they ripen), and is also naturalised in some areas, including the Philippines and Nigeria. Numerous cultivars have been selected for fruit quality. It is also abundant in Central America.

ee also

*List of plants of Cerrado vegetation of Brazil

References

*Miller, A and Schall, B. 2005. Domestication of a Mesoamerican cultivated fruit tree, "Spondias purpurea". "PNAS" 102:12801–12806
* [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/purple_mombin.html Purple Mombin]