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Jocote
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae;
(unranked):	Angiosperms;
(unranked):	Eudicots;
(unranked):	Rosids;
Order:	Sapindales;
Family:	Anacardiaceae;
Genus:	Spondias;
Species:	S. purpurea;
Binomial name
	Spondias purpurea; L.

Jocote (Spondias purpurea) is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. Other common names include Red Mombin, Purple Mombin,or Hog Plum. The name "jocote" derives from the Nahuatl word xocotl ("fruit"). ^[1]

Fruit of the jocote tree

It is a small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall. The leaves are deciduous in the short dry season, but only fall shortly before the new leaves develop; they are pinnate, with 7-23 leaflets, each leaflet 3-5 cm long and 1.5-2 cm broad. The flowers are small, reddish-purple, produced in large panicles. The fruit is an edible oval drupe, 3-5 cm long and 2-3.5 cm broad, ripening red (occasionally yellow) and containing a single large seed.

It is now widely cultivated in tropical regions throughout the world for its edible fruit, and is also naturalised in some areas, including the Philippines and Nigeria. Numerous cultivars have been selected for fruit quality. It is also abundant in Central America.

[edit] Use

The fruits are often eaten ripe, with or without the skin. It is sometimes eaten unripe with salt.

In Haiti, it is known under the name of 'siwèl' and spread throughout the mountains lands of the country, mostly in the northern and southern mountain ranges.

The single large seed, which takes up most of the fruit, is not eaten.