Messy Mamey

The mamey zapote tree is quite active these days.  The tree is full of fruit, and one has been taste tested.  They are good this year!  I tasted one that wasn't quite ripe, and after all that description of flavors described in this previous post, I thought it tasted like the almond flavor they put in Chinese cookies. If we can figure out how to get the ripe ones down from the very top of the tree without them smashing on the concrete, I will be happy to share with the people I know who really like this fruit. 

The time has come for mamey tree to shed its winter leaves and rapidly grow the summer set.  This photo was taken a few days ago and since then the tree has lost almost all the leaves you see lingering here.

This is where the leaves have gone.

These photos are only a couple days' collection of leaves, as Pablo has been ritually sweeping them up daily for a couple weeks now.  Finally he threw down the broom and decided to wait for it to finish!

It is hard to capture what I wanted to in the photo below, but I think you can get the idea.  The tree is going to produce five times as much fruit next year by the looks of all the babies on the limbs. 

As trees go, this would have to rate up near the top of hassle trees. It seems to make several varieties of messes in the entire patio area.  But, there is something that draws me to this tree.  I love to watch the bizarre changes it goes through during the course of a year.  It is the cat's escape route to the other side.What's more, it's my meditation tree.

Mamey: Up Close and Personal

        I spent most of yesterday trying to upload the photos that follow.  Had I done my homework I would have realized that not only had I wanted to write about this tree, but in fact I already did.  Here:  The first MAMEY post.  That didn't stop me, not after spending the entire day working on this piece.  

This is the big picture.  This tree provides shade from the brutal summer sun, live entertainment for anyone sitting in the patio, a bridge to "the other side" for the cats, as well as (fingers crossed) edible fruit.  It's been a while since I have been in the swimming pool at all, let alone whiling away the hours thinking, writing and watching the life that abounds in the mamey tree.  The tree definitely brings back fond memories of a more productive time in the water. 

I was surprised to read, in my own blog mind you, that this is an evergreen tree.  Once I stopped to think about it, it not only sheds its leaves twice a year, but I don't remember a stage when it isn't full and green and leafy.  It also grows new flowers as soon as it is finished dropping the load it currently has.  The bees love them.  There always seem to be flowers growing mysteriously on its branches.

The flowers fall off by the thousands, it seems, covering the patio in a fragrant layer of yellow.

The tree makes a huge mess every day, all year long.  And we have yet to harvest one edible fruit.  Walking underneath is reminiscent of being under a coconut tree; you always have to be conscious of the noggin whacker that could drop at any moment.   

It is somewhat of a pain to maintain......but it is a great reminder of the amazing ecosystem that surrounds us. And it stirs up that longing for the good old days of summer.  I may be the only one looking forward to the intense heat, but hey, that's life in the tropics!