Capulin

capulin Prunus salicifolia, a true cherry (so called also by names such as cereza or cerezo, meaning cherry), has been cultivated since early times in the cooler mountainous regions of C. and northern S. America, where it grows abundantly.

The unrelated ‘Jamaican cherry’, Muntingia calabura, in the family Elaeocarpaceae, is also often known as capulin or capuli in Latin America. It is indigenous to C. and tropical S. America, but is now widely grown elsewhere, e.g. India, Malaysia (where it is known as ‘Japanese’ or ‘Chinese cherry’), and the Philippines. Its small red or yellow fruits have a light brown, soft, juicy pulp, filled with minute yellowish seeds, too small to notice when eating. It has a sweet, figlike flavour.