The seven year apple is neither an apple nor does it take seven years for its fruit to mature. I
This leathery denizen of beach fronts flowers and forms fruit at the same time, which is a good thing because it takes a full year for the fruit to ripen. When it does ripen it is devoured by mockingbirds that hollow out the tasty fruit and leave a dead skin hanging in the tree. Butterflies use it as a larval host plant, and the mangrove skipper and others that use it for nectar float around it.