cocoplum

     

The cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco) is a shrub (1 to 3 m) or bushy tree (2 to 6 m, rarely to 10 m) that is foun near sea beaches and inland throughout tropical America and the Caribbean, including southern Florida. (The inland form is C. icaco pellocarpus.) It has evergreen broad-oval to nearly round somewhat leathery leaves (3 to 10 cm long and 2.5 to 7 cm wide). Leaf colors range from green to light red. The bark is greyish or reddish brown, with white specks. The flowers are small, white, in clusters, appearing in late spring. In late summer it bears fruit in clusters, that of the coastal form being round, up to 5 cm in diameter, pale-yellow with rose blush or dark-purple in color, while that of the inland form is oval, up to 2.5 cm long, and dark-purple.