Species
+

Casimiroa edulis La Llave & Lex.

Anon canadiense de guell, Mango tarango, Matasano (Puerto Rico), Mexican-apple

Climate known 92 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The white sapote, scientific name Casimiroa edulis, also called casimiroa and Mexican apple, and known as cochitzapotl in the Nahuatl language is a species of tropical fruiting tree in the family Rutaceae, native to eastern Mexico and Central America south to Costa Rica. The genus is named for "an Otomi Indian, Casimiro Gómez, from the town of Cardonal in Hidalgo, Mexico, who fought and died in Mexico's war of independence."

Text from Wikipedia, “White sapote”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Casimiroa

Casimiroa is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae. It includes about 10 species native to Mexico and Central America. The genus is named for "an Otomi Indian, Casimiro Gómez, from the town of Cardonal in Hidalgo, Mexico, who fought and died in Mexico's war of independence."

Text from Wikipedia, “Casimiroa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
La Llave & Lex.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +8
Wild records
679 in range· 499 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
May, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
948mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 211 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 948 mm a year, wettest July at 211 mm, driest March at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Casimiroa edulis f. microcarpa Martínez; Casimiroa sapota f. comitana Martínez; Casimiroa sapota f. costarricensis Martínez; Casimiroa sapota f. glabrata Martínez; Casimiroa sapota f. jaliscana Martínez and 8 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (730 mm of 948 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.9 °C against a yearly mean of 18.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 948 mm a year, wettest July at 211 mm, driest March at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

948 mm a year at the habitat, 730 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 211 mm, driest March at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 569 mm to 1979 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -4.2 °C, 35 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.4 °C to 15.3 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jan to 28 °C in May; mean night from 9 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 948 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 476 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–46RH 50–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 476 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 18–2623 / 20–2826 / 22–3027 / 23–3228 / 23–3326 / 21–3124 / 20–3024 / 20–3023 / 20–2923 / 19–2923 / 19–2822 / 18–26
Night °C9 / 5–159 / 6–1611 / 8–1613 / 9–1814 / 11–1915 / 12–2215 / 11–2215 / 11–2214 / 11–2113 / 10–1911 / 8–179 / 6–16
Rain mm19 / 8–6213 / 7–4910 / 4–4923 / 4–6953 / 12–169161 / 74–335211 / 107–329191 / 96–329167 / 98–36471 / 41–23019 / 10–8710 / 5–67
DLI32 / 26–3437 / 30–3943 / 37–4546 / 40–4945 / 38–5039 / 33–4337 / 33–4137 / 33–4033 / 30–3633 / 28–3532 / 26–3430 / 24–32
RH %54 / 49–6552 / 48–6250 / 45–6050 / 44–6154 / 46–6562 / 55–6964 / 59–6965 / 59–6966 / 60–7162 / 56–7057 / 51–6755 / 50–66

Each figure is the median across the 476 grid cells holding the 675 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1388:1611 (20.575, -99.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 476 distinct grid cells holding the 675 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1388:1611 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -216 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1769 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua· introduced: Bangladesh, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.688, -101.276 · in the densest population, 363 records (53% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 679 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 499 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 194 km away. 128 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 679 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Casimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulisCasimiroa edulis

Photographs: (c) Luis F. Ramírez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Viacheslav Shalisko, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Casimiroa edulis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Colonization of Citrus and Citrus-related Germplasm by Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae)
Catherine J. Westbrook, David G. Hall, Ed Stover, Yong Duan (2011) · HortScience
Synthesis of Casimiroin and Optimization of Its Quinone Reductase 2 and Aromatase Inhibitory Activities
Arup Maiti, P. Venkat Reddy, Megan Sturdy, Laura E. Marler (2009) · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Apparent Tolerance to Huanglongbing in Citrus and Citrus-related Germplasm
Godfrey P. Miles, Ed Stover, Chandrika Ramadugu, Manjunath L. Keremane (2017) · HortScience
Central nervous system activity of the hydroalcoholic extract of Casimiroa edulis in rats and mice
Sergio Mora, Gabriela Díaz‐Véliz, H. Lungenstrass, Mildred García-González (2004) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Traditional plants as source of functional foods: a review Plantas tradicionales como fuente de alimentos funcionales: una revisión
Gildardo Rivera, Virgilio Bocanegra‐García, Antonio Monge (2010) · CyTA - Journal of Food
804. The constituents of Casimiroa edulis llave et lex. Part I. The seed
Fred A. Kincl, J. Romo, G. Rosenkranz, Franz Sondheimer (1956) · Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed)
Antimutagenic Constituents of Casimiroa edulis with Potential Cancer Chemopreventive Activity
Aiko Ito, Lisa A. Shamon, Boyang Yu, Eugenia Mata‐Greenwood (1998) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Discovery of novel inducers of cellular differentiation using HL-60 promyelocytic cells.
Eugenia Mata‐Greenwood, Aya Ito, H Westenburg, Bei Cui (2001) · PubMed
Anxiolytic-like actions of leaves of Casimiroa edulis (Rutaceae) in male Wistar rats
Miguel Molina-Hernández, N. Patricia Téllez-Alcántara, Julián Pérez García, Jorge Ivan Olivera Lopez (2004) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Anticonvulsant activity of Casimiroa edulis in comparison to phenytoin and phenobarbital
Alícia Navarro Ruiz, Blanca Estela Bastidas Ramírez, Joaquín García Estrada, P.García López (1995) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Hydraulic traits vary as the result of tip-to-base conduit widening in vascular plants
Diana Soriano, Alberto Bergerandi Echeverría, Tommaso Anfodillo, Julieta A. Rosell (2020) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Citrus bitter principles. IX. Extractives of Casimiroa edulis. Structure of zapoterin
David L. Dreyer (1968) · The Journal of Organic Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 115 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.