Popoatli

Overview

The Popoatli Tree is an indigenous flowering plant in the family Bignoniaceae of the genus Kigelia (Kigelia popoatli) found around and on the Tapelt Mountains. They are a secondary food source for the Azlo and Tapelt with high cultural value.

Popoatli comes from the Tapelt word “Popoya” for the fruit and the Metztli word “Kamotli” for potato, due to the fruit’s resemblance to sweet potatoes. In Metztli, Popoatli is “Popoyakamotli Kuatitli”, literally meaning “Potatofruit Tree”. The Limonaian traders shortened the name to “Popoatli”. Which became the international name of both the fruit and tree.

Habitat

The Popoatli grows up to 10 meters in height with large spreading branches that bunch into clumps. The bark is pale grey with vertical ridges to allow water to slide off with relative ease as well as being quite thin. The interior wood of a Popoatli Tree is a pale light grey. The Popoatli has large buttresses to allow for extra stability in the mountains, giving the tree it’s a unique hourglass shape. The tree grows optimally in a pH of 5 to 7 and a temperature of around 20°C.

The Popoatli Tree is an evergreen tree as it inhabits the lower regions of the Tapelt Mountains in the tropics where rain and temperatures are near-constant. The leaves of the Popoatli Tree are long and oval in shape with drip tips, at around 30-50 centimeters.

Fruit

The Popoatli Fruit weighs between 3 to 5 kilograms in cultivation and 5-10 kilograms in the wild. When unripe the Popoatli is a pale lime green, which transitions to yellow, orange, then a dark crimson magenta which is when the fruit is finally ripe. The Popoatli is covered in a thick rind, when unripe, has many incredibly hard bumps. The inside flesh of a Popoatli depends on how ripe. The Popoatli Fruit has many seeds in the center, usually between 10-30 in the wild and 5-10 in farms. The shape of the Popoatli fruit is similar to that of a Kigelia fruit.

Unripe Popoatli has a starchy texture with a widely considered bland taste and is pale green in color. The Popoatli is not as toxic as it’s Kigelia cousin but still requires to be boiled and steamed to remove the toxins and more laxative nature of the unripe Popoatli.

The Ripe Popoatli has a dark pinkish flesh that has a texture similar to that of strawberries with a more generic fruit-sweet taste. The toxins in a ripe Popoatli is at a safe level, however rapid consumptions of a high amount of Popoatli can still cause indigestion and temporary sickness. The Rind of Ripe Popoatli rind can be consumed but is incredibly bland, starchy, and chewy. With higher concentrations of toxins still present.