The volume presents the first full list (54 genera and 1175 species) of the family to appear since the mid-nineteenth century. The Sapotaceae (the argan, chicle or gutta-percha family) are prominent in most of the wetter tropics and subtropics and are of considerable direct and indirect economic importance as sources of fine timber, fruit and vegetable oil as well as latex. Many are also planted as amenity trees. The circumscription of the genera follows that currently used at Kew, which is based on ’The Genera of the Sapotaceae’ (1991) by T.D. Pennington.

The 39 illustrations of representative species are mostly drawn from the Kew Illustration Collection.