The sansapote, photographed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture plant explorers, Cook, Collins and Doyle, at Nicoya, Costa Rica, in 1903. It is sometimes slightly buttressed.
New foliage is bronze or red-purple and very showy.
Only 1 to 3 fruits develop from each particle. The obovoid or pyriform. The sansapote grows wild in dense forests from southern Mexico to Panama, on both coasts, and also in northern Colombia. It is much planted as an ornamental and shade tree throughout Central America. It was introduced into the Philippines in the early 1900's and into Hawaii only about 25 years ago.