Dear #AmazingNature community it is always a pleasure to be with you and share those wonderful things that the world around us offers us, today I will tell you about a curious fruit. Well, it is curious at least for me, I have tasted it only once and I recognize that, although it was not an unpleasant experience, it was strange.

You may ask, why strange, ok, I will try to explain, well the first thing is that this fruit does not exactly have an attractive appearance at first sight, in fact, I bought it with suspicion. On the other hand, when I finally extracted its shell, the sight of it brought back memories of my childhood, because it reminded me of a fruit called mamey, which I love and have not eaten for many years. Finally, it was time to taste it and well, this was the strangest thing, it had a texture like a mango, but with more strands, however, its flavor is a little graceless. I felt like I was in the presence of a chimera from the vegetable kingdom, hahaha.

This strange fruit, here in Venezuela is called Zapote or Sapote, in other places it is known as Chupa Chupa, Matisia Cordata or South American Zapote. It belongs to the Malvaceae family and to the Quararibea genus, so in the scientific field it is called Quarararibea Cordata. It is a species that enjoys fertile and humid soils, as long as they are not flooded of course, so it is native to humid tropical forests, so it can be found from Peru to Brazil.

According to my research on the web, the tree from which this strange fruit comes from is characterized by an erect, smooth, round and woody trunk, very appreciated in carpentry. It has a great height, reaching in ideal conditions between 40 and 45 meters. It has a verticillate branching through which its green heart-shaped leaves are distributed, which are quite large and give a very ornamental appearance to this tree.

In the case of the inflorescences, they have a yellowish color and emerge from a kind of pale green calyx. A curious fact about this tree is that, when it blooms, it is completely covered with flowers, which are distributed throughout all its thick branches and even on the trunk.

I already told you about some details of this tree and its flowers, now let's talk about its peculiar fruit, which, from what I understand in some places is very popular. The first thing you should know about this fruit is that, although it may seem strange, it is a berry, which has a shape and size similar to a cannonball. In other words, they look like small balloons, which are about 7 cm in diameter, and which have a greenish-brown skin, not very appetizing, by the way, and also quite hard and thick. On the other hand, inside they have a very striking orange color, very similar to that of a ripe mango, as well as the fibrous texture of its pulp. What is different, and reminds me more of a “Mamey”, is that the pulp envelops or encapsulates separately several seeds shaped elongated about 5 cm long, are hard and inedible.

The fruit of the sapote tree is consumed either raw or drinks are also made with it, according to my sister, it is delicious if milk is added, that is, as meringue. But the best thing is that it apparently has beneficial properties for our health, providing minerals such as magnesium, calcium and potassium. These are essential to maintain in good condition the functioning of our heart, bones and the coagulation process, protecting with this, in addition, the arteries. It is also supposed to have anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and antioxidant properties.

As you could read, the Zapote, although a bit strange, is a very interesting fruit and apparently, also quite beneficial for our organism. So, I hope you liked the facts I shared with you, especially @adalger and @bucipuci, since it is my participation in this week's contest, Amazing Nature Contest: FREE TOPIC - #2/5/22. For now, I can only say goodbye, and send you many blessings.

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