Moquilea platypus
species of plant
Moquilea platypus, also known as sun sapote, sansapote, and monkey apple, is a flowering tree in the family Chrysobalanaceae. The specific epithet (platypus) is Neo-Latin for "flat-footed".
Other names
Moquilea platypus has many common names across its native range, including sonzapote, sunzapote, sungano, zapote cabelludo, sapote, sangre, zapote amarillo, zapote borracho, zapote cabello, zapote de mico, zapote de mono, mesonsapote, mezonzapote, cabeza de mico, caca de nino, sonza, sunza, zunza, chaute jolobob, urraco, and chupa.
Distribution
Moquilea platypus is native to southern Mexico south to northern Colombia and grows wild in dense forests up to 2,000 feet (610 meters) in elevation. It has been introduced to India, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Florida, and Hawaii.
Description
The tree grows erect, sometimes reaching 100–160 feet (30–49 meters) in height. It has a thick, rounded crown and is heavily foliaged. The bark is dark purplish to brown in color and is dotted with small white to reddish-white lenticels. The trunk is sometimes buttressed. The leaves are deciduous and alternate, sometimes spiraled, and elliptic to lanceolate in shape.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Moquilea platypus” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q81735608. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Moquilea platypus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.