Strange Sapote Similar to Mamey

[Mike T]

Unfortunately I have no photo of this fruit. A market vendor selling mameys, canistels, sapodillas and various other fruit today asked me the identity of a large green coloured sapote that had him baffled. There was a point, scurf around the connection of the thick stem and a browned area around the pointed base rather like a green sapote. Being about a pound and a half and having a shape like a big canistel it looked like a weird hybrid to me. Cutting revealed a single central seed that was large and there flesh of a maroon colour that was totally unexpected. The taste was excellent and rather half way between mamey and sapodilla being the best in the genus I have tried.
It must be a weird mamey variety with different coloured skin and flesh that is a bit moister than usual or a mamey hybrid. I relieved the fellow of the germinating seed and the fruit was consumed rapidly by delighted fruit enthusiasts thronging like a show was on.
Does anyone have any leads on what this fruit could be? I have no information about the tree, source and if other fruit are on. Imagine a giant green squat canistel with scurf at the top and bottom, that has maroon moist flesh but tastes like a great blend of sapodilla and mamey and that is it.
Wish I had a shot.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

did you consider Pouteria macrophylla?

[Mike T]

Oh yeah the flesh becomes pale orange near the seed and the seed is like a giant ross sapote seed being shorter and thicker than a typical mamey seed.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

oh wait flesh was maroon?
i'm baffled.
lol maybe a green sap, mamey hybrid, or a missing link that isn't in textbooks

[Mike T]

Saff it doesn't relate to anything in books or from what I have seen. It appears to be a tribrid with 50% mamey,25% sapodilla and 25% green sapote with flesh texture closer to sapodilla and taste a blend of the 3 and external appearance perhaps closest to green sapote.
I need more seeds and fruit of this mysterious fruit.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Saff it doesn't relate to anything in books or from what I have seen. It appears to be a tribrid with 50% mamey,25% sapodilla and 25% green sapote with flesh texture closer to sapodilla and taste a blend of the 3 and external appearance perhaps closest to green sapote.
I need more seeds and fruit of this mysterious fruit.

whatever it is, I bet it's from South America!

sounds like an exciting new find!

hope you find out what it is....or at least find a source for fruits, scions and seeds.

[Mike T]

I will track down the source if possible as this one has real potential. The flesh colour really throws me and the taste is a pleasant surprise. I need a new white whale and the giant Fiji longan is not yet in hand and the Durio macrantha and Russell's sweet garcinia are bagged, so this could be it.

[siafu]

Hi,

Any chance it might be "Pouteria fossicola"

David Chandlee used to list this species in the Borneo Collection seed page.
That was before his farm got destroyed by the cyclone Larry.

[Mike T]

Fossicola is worth investigating but it will be from central America or a bit north or south by the looks of it. Cyclone Yasi in 2011 also gave the Chandlee farm a flogging

[Mike T]

Looked a P.fossicola and there are definitely some similarities but flesh colour is different and this fruit appears to be larger far wider through the middle and the seed is shorter and thicker. Maybe there are different forms of this fossicola.It doesn't make sense because a fruit that good should be grown everywhere and the fossicola shots show it has thinner flesh, a larger seed and is less palatable looking that this mystery fruit.Maybe it is a fossicola x mamey.

[Mike T]

The update is that this fruit is different from the species that David Chandlee used to have. There were a couple of trees around until recently and now only a single one from Mossman is known. Locally it is called green mamey and seems to be considered very highly by those who sample it. The tree produced only 3 fruit this year.

[Mike T]

The seed in question.

[kyo12315k]

Can i ask the question?
Can early flowering by cuttings?

[Mike T]

Cutting and marcot grown fruit trees generally fruit early and often faster than grafted trees.What they loose in root system strength and durability they can gain in avoiding graft incompatability.

[druss]

Hi Mike,
               Nice sounding fruit. How do you think the mamey compares to the abiu in cold hardiness. Ive been thinking about trying them here in perth but wasnt sure how they'd go. Also do you know anyone who may have seeds of the pouteria fossicola? Or if they'll graft to lucuma?
Cheers

[micah]

Another one! How do you keep this up?  2-3 times a year you pull new golden rabbits out of yer hat. 
Your description - a real lip licker.
Hopefully pics of fruit will come about next

[FlyingFoxFruits]

if not a novel species, maybe a rare cultivar of Green sapote? or subspecies?

I suppose the least likely hypothesis would be a chance hybrid.

[fruitlovers]

I doubt it's a hybrid. More likely just a species you don't know about. Look at genus Pouteria > it has 238 accepted species.
http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Sapotaceae/Pouteria/

[Mike T]

You are right Oscar that there are plenty of species in this genus. The pool with mamey sized fruit that are great eating and have a single central seed should be a very small band.It may be a form of fossicola or a divergent mamey.I expected something good and distinctive as this fruit was to be recognized.

[druss]

The list of possible pouteria is reasonably short in itself given that any pouteria here are imported. It may be a quality seedling of mamey or an unknown species or subspecies, possibly a hybrid with mamey as a parent, it may not even be a whole tree, it could be a random bud sport, a random branch of greatness on an otherwise mediocre tree. A great challenge either way.

[Mike T]

It is a whole tree in Mossman and the fruit are consistent but few which may be the cause of its rarity.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

with all this talk of "pics or it didn't happen" on the forum, I must admit, I enjoy reading a written description of a fruit, and imagining what it looks like.

it always makes it more exciting when you finally see a picture...and it's fun to see what it really looks like, as opposed to what you imagined it would look like.

I guess the same is true about reading a description of a fruit's flavor, and waiting 5yrs or more to finally taste it.

[Mike T]

I have pre-emptively posted about unusual fruit before and hoped photos would come along later. Photos followed a few times before but the odds are I wont get a shot of this one soon. The thought process with me is, 'should I post about this if I don't have a photo?'. I think sometimes it is better just to let it slide if you have just a description.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

I have pre-emptively posted about unusual fruit before and hoped photos would come along later. Photos followed a few times before but the odds are I wont get a shot of this one soon. The thought process with me is, 'should I post about this if I don't have a photo?'. I think sometimes it is better just to let it slide if you have just a description.

ok Mike, as long as you don't get a pic of a green sapote, and alter to look more like a mamey! 

[Mike T]

I would start with a mamey shot and alter it with green sapote characteristics and could come up with something almost the same. Unfortunately I have no tech skills.