Sugar Apple

The Custard apple, Sugar apple or Sweetsop is indigenous to tropical America. In Pakistan, it is widely cultivated in Sind and also in Punjab. The fruit is the best tasting of all the Annona species. The pulp is said to be rich in Vitamin C. Seeds are strong irritant to eyes and may cause blindness. Leaves and unripe fruit are insecticidal. Root is a strong purgative.

The fruit of Annona squamosa ( Annona sect. Atta C. Martius) has delicious whitish pulp, and it is popular in tropical markets.

Small tree, 5-6 m high. Young branches sparsely hairy. Leaves elliptic to oblong-obovate, 8-11 x 3-4.3 cm, acute to obtuse with cuneate to subrounded base, glabrous on both sides, young leaves sparsely hairy. Petiole 5-12 mm long, glabrous. Peduncle 2-3 mm long, leaf opposed or terminal on short axillary branches, 1-2-flowered. Bract and bracteole minute, pilose. Pedicel 11-16 mm long, glabrous. Sepals broadly deltoid, 1.5-3 x 3-4 mm, basally connate, pilose outside. Outer petals oblong, 20-27 x 7-9 mm, pale yellow with deep purple spot inside at base, obtuse, triquetrous, basally concave within, sparsely pilose to glabrous outside, puberulous inside; inner petals frequently absent. Receptacle conical. Stamens 1 mm long, narrow cuneate, filament short, locules equal, connective-tip subtruncate. Carpels basally connate, ovary dorsally pilose, 1-ovuled, style short, stigma narrow conical. Fruit 5-10 x 5-7.5 cm, yellowish green, glaucous, tuberculate, monocarps loose and easily separable in ripe fruit, pulp soft, smooth, pure white or yellow tinged. Seeds dark brown to black.

Shrubs or trees , to ca. 8 m; trunks short, not buttressed at base. Principal leaves late deciduous; petiole 4-22 mm. Leaf blade narrowly elliptic to oblong or lanceolate, 5-17 × 2-5.5 cm, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex acute to obtuse; surfaces glaucous, abaxially variably pubescent, adaxially glabrate. Inflorescences solitary flowers or fascicles; peduncle slender, to 2 cm, becoming enlarged in fruit. Flowers: sepals deltate, 1.5-2 mm, apex acute, surfaces abaxially pubescent or glabrous; outer petals pale green above purplish base, oblong or lance-oblong, 1.5-3 cm, base slightly concave, surfaces abaxially furrowed, pubescent, adaxially thickened, keeled; inner petals ovate, keeled, minute, nearly as long as stamens; stamens club-shaped, curved, 1-3 mm; connective dilated, flattened and truncate; pistils conically massed, separable at anthesis, later connate. Syncarp pendulous on thickened peduncle, greenish yellow, glaucous, mostly ±globose, 5-10 cm, muricate. Seed ellipsoid to obovoid, 1-1.4 cm.

Distribution: Widely cultivated in Old and New World tropics.

introduced; Fla.; native to West Indies; naturalized or cultivated circumtropically.

Fl. Per.: April-August.

Flowering spring-early summer.

Dryish sandy substrates, dry hammocks; 0-50m.

Annona asiatica Linnaeus