Humans or bats, who made chicle a dominant species?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
July 10, 2002
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Native to Central America, the chicozapote (Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen) is one of the dominant species found where once the Maya civilization flourished—the rainforests of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.
The chicozapote inflorescence is fasciculate--numerous flowers arising from the same location on the branch. The flowers are cream to pale green and are held below the foliage making the flowers accessible to bats. Hoyt Heaton of El Eden Ecological Reserve reports that no pollinators have been directly observed, but bats are thought the major pollinator.
Peter Alcorn in the "Botany and Ecology of Chicle" relates that captured long-tongued bats (Glossophaga spp.) showed the majority carried chicozapote pollen on the fur.
Bats also appear important to the survival of the seedlings. Most seeds fall within the parent tree's canopy shadow, probably dropped during the feeding activities of monkeys (Alouatta pigran and Ateles geoffroyi) and kinkajous (Potos flavus). The seedlings are forest gap dependent; those under the canopy will grow slowly or fail. Bat feeding is suggested the means that carries the seeds the farthest from the parent tree.
Chicozapote trees appear 'clumped' in distribution in the forests, probable dispersion of the seeds by animals. The majority of trees found near and on ancient Mayan ruins are chicozapote. Amanda Neill in "Chicle: a Sustainable Rainforest Crop" writes, "The prevalence of this species...that were once Mayan agricultural areas may reflect ancient encouragement, if not cultivation, of chicle."
Peter Alcorn offers a different explanation to the prevalence of chicozapote in the ruins: "...their seeds are dispersed there by bats which carry the entire fruits back to their roosts. The popularity of Mayan ruins to roosting bats is well known."
The University of Hawaii has photographs of the strange flowers on the Sapotaceae. The second set in the table are chicozapote (Manilkara zapota). To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/sapot.htm
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.
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