Omphalocarpum elatum Miers ('omphalocarpum' = navel fruit, 'elatum' = lofty) is a tall, tropical African tree belonging to the family Sapotaceae, remarkable for the large fruits growing directly from the trunk, and in many ways resembling the Lecythidaceae genus Napoleonaea. It is found in Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, the Central African Republic, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola in the south. The fruits are favoured by elephants, the only animals able to break through the hard shell. They do this by skewering the fruit with a tusk while using their trunk to brace it against the ground. Having passed through the elephant's digestive tract, seeds germinate more readily. Although not yet endangered, the tree's life c