Thu-ta-bat, Maya Fruit and the Extinct Dodo

It was in April 2013 that I tasted a fruit that I had never seen before. It was brought by my friend from Twantay, a town on the bank of the Twantay canal connecting Yangon River and the Ayarwady River. It was shaped somewhat like a pear with smooth yellow skin and cracked from a drop from the tree. My friend told me its name—Tuttapat fruit, and I had never heard of it either.

 Soon as I opened the fruit I saw the big brown seed that looked unmistakably like the seed of a Tha-gya-thee we can buy in fruit stalls here. Luckily, I knew that Tha-gya-thee (Malnikara zapota or Acharas zapota) is a member of the Sapotaceae family. So I looked for Sapotaceae on the Web and concluded that Tuttapat is a fruit of the genus Pouteria which are natives of the Central and South Americas but commercially grown in Africa and tropical Asia.

So I was very confident and said this in my presentation to friends:  'But it was easy to identify that the “Tuttapat” fruit of Twante said to be reserved for the royalty in the olden days is just a fruit of the Sapotaceae family native to Mexico & Central America. It is the “Canistel” (Pouteria campechiana).'

It is said that Mayan youths gather mature, green canistel fruit from dense evergreen trees planted near their homes. The fruit are placed in the cooled ashes of the fire and left to ripen to a golden yellow.

So Tuttapat is a Tha-gya-thee of a kind different from the familiar brown, rough skinned Tha-gya-thee (Manilkara zapota) we get in the markets in Myanmar. The latter is commercially grown in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Mexico.

As far as I am concerned, the case is closed. Tuttapat is nothing other than a fruit tree of the Sapotaceae family. Specifically, Pouteria campechiana the Canistel fruit, if I am not wrong.  However, my last minute check before writing this post was a real surprise. I discovered quite by accident that there is a tree in Myanmar called Thu-ta-bat according to the "A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, and Climbers of Myanmar" (p. 366), of 2003. Its scientific name is Sideroxylon grandiflorum. The base version for that list, the "List of Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, and Principal Climbers etc. Recorded from Burma" of 1961, gives its Myanmar name as Thuttabat or Taw-thabut. From these it seems certain that there is a tree called Thu-ta-bat or Thuttabat or Tuttapat of Twentay (if it is the same as the former two names pronounced a slightly different way) native to Myanmar.

However, the search on the Web for Sideroxylon grandiflorum gives it as edemic to Mauritius. As can be seen, its seed is protected by a hard cover. The Tuttaput fruit from Twentay, on the other hand, has just the seed of a regular sapote fruit as I had tasted the fruit and seen the seed myself. This is the conclusive proof that Tuttapat couldn't be Sideroxylon grandiflorum.

As for the Sideroxylon grandiflorum it is interestingly connected with the extinct flightless bird Dodo of Mauritius.

Dodos were slaughtered in large numbers by sailors and settlers, and pigs which were introduced to the island voraciously ate the dodo eggs. The last dodo was killed in 1681—less than 180 years after it was first described.” (Creation 14(1):21 Dec, 1991, by Robert Doolan)

The theory that Sideroxylon grandiflorum needs Dodo for seed germination, once sensational news, was disproved (TopTropicals.com, https://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/Sideroxylon_sp.htm).

In 1973, it was thought that endemic to Mauritius, Sideroxylon grandiflorum (Tambalacoque, Dodo Tree) was dying out. There were supposedly only 13 specimens left, all estimated to be about 300 years old. It was hypothesized that the Dodo, which became extinct in the 17th century, ate tambalacoque fruits, and only by passing through the digestive tract of the Dodo could the seeds germinate. However, further research proved that the situation is not as bad as it seemed. The scientists tried to force-feed Tambalacoque fruit to other animals, such as wild turkeys, and did get some seeds germinated. The Tambalacoque seeds, passed through digestive systems of Aldabra Giant Tortoise (Geochelone gigantea) had pretty good gemination rate, and yet the seedlings appeared to be more vigorous and disease-resistant. To aid the seed in germination, botanists now use turkeys and gem polishers to erode the endocarp to allow germination. Tambalacoque is highly valued for its wood in Mauritius, which has led some foresters to scrape the pits by hand to make them sprout and grow. So the species seems to be out of danger now; besides, young trees are not distinct in appearance and may easily be confused with similar species.

Because of that if Sideroxylon grandiflorum really grows in Myanmar, either endemic or introduced, it would be great news to the scientific community.

As for the Tuttapat trees of Twentay, from what I could make out they are most likely the Canistel (Pouteria campechiana). According to World Agroforestry Centre, Canistel is an erect tree and generally not more than 8 m tall, but it may, in favorable situations, reach height of 27-30 m and the trunk may attain diameter of 1 m.

From the photos available, the Twentay trees look considerably taller than the norm and if they indeed are Canistel, they would be incredibly old and seem not so productive now. If so, they should be preserved under some form of monumental trees program and assist the owner to protect against the imminent danger of being cut down.