White Sapote (Casimiroa edulis)

White Sapote (Casimiroa edulis) is in the same family as Citrus (Rutaceae), and will grow wherever Citrus can be grown.  The fruit is between the size of a large hen's egg and a tennis ball, depending on the variety and growing conditions.

When ripe, the green skin of Casimiroa edulis turns a slight yellowish tint.  Inside the paper-thin skin, is a delicious, soft, sweet, white flesh with a custard texture.  The fruit usually contains one or two large seeds and a few flat undeveloped seed remnants.  Because of the thin skin and the softness of the ripe fruit, it is best to pick fruits from the tree as they mature.  Fully ripe fruits will detach from the tree and when they hit the ground they turn to mush.

I usually cut the ripe fruit in half, spoon out the contents, and eat it fresh.  When they ripen faster than I can eat them, I make a Frozen White Sapote Pie.  I make a graham cracker crust, fill it with soft-ripe fruit, and stick it in the freezer.  Nothing could be easier, and it's a great treat on a hot summer day!
There are several named cultivars of White Sapote.  Flowering and ripening time varies with variety and climate.  Mine always starts to bloom in early winter and continues throughout the spring.  I get ripe fruits starting in May and sometimes continuing through the whole summer and into September.  The flowers are small and inconspicuous, but provide excellent forage for bees.

Casimiroa edulis is native to central Mexico.  They grow 30 to 40 feet tall and make a dense shade.  The tree has a habit of molting a few times per year and most of the palmate leaves will drop suddenly leaving the tree nearly bare of foliage.  That is normal for this tree.  New growth is a coppery-red color.

White Sapote has a distinctive, warty bark that is usually host to algae and lichens, giving it a mottled appearance.

As a member of the Rutaceae family, Casimiroa edulis is also a larval host plant for Swallowtail butterflies.

Various chemical compounds have been extracted from the fruit and seed and show potential uses in drugs for sleep aids, cardio-vascular regulation, anti-convulsives, and sexual enhancement.