The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Manilkara elata, the cow tree, is a large tree from Brazil's Atlantic and Amazon-edge forests, valued for its edible fruit and durable wood. It is seldom grown as a garden or houseplant, so care details below are general guidance for tropical trees of this genus.
Manilkara elata, also called the cow tree, is a species of plant in the family Sapotaceae. It is Endemic to the Amazon region in Brazil, where it is endangered by habitat loss.
The edible fruit resembles small apples, and its flesh has a creamy, milk-like texture, which gave the tree its name. It is commonly sold by vendors in the Brazilian state of Pará. Indigenous peoples of the Amazon drink the milk exuded from the tree's bark.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Manilkara elata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
