Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Manilkara bidentata subsp. surinamensis - Black Balata
![](https://images.echocommunity.org/83b79e84-e30b-4ecb-b6ab-851e98ff7dfb/thumbnail.jpg?w=400)
Edible Portion: Fruit, Latex
A shrub or small tree. It is sometimes 1-2 m high. In the rainforest it can grow 40 m high. It then often has buttresses. The bark is greyish brown and deeply cracked. The plant has lots of sticky white sap. The leaves are 7-21 cm long and usually sword shaped and rounded at the tip. The leaf stalk is 2.5 cm long. The tree loses its leaves for a short period of time just before flowering. The new leaves and flowers develop together. The flowers are greenish-white. The fruit ripens reddish-purple to black. The fruit are edible.