star apple Chrysophyllum cainito, a tropical fruit popular in the W. Indies and C. America. It was being cultivated long before the arrival of Europeans, and has always been prized for its ornamental value as well as for its fruits. The author Charles Kingsley once described it as being ‘like an evergreen peach, shedding from the under-side of every leaf a golden light’.
The tree is cultivated in tropical America as far south as Peru and north to Florida, but attempts to introduce it into Asia have had disappointing results, although it is appreciated, and fairly common, in the Philippines.
