Sugar-apple
Annona squamosa (also called sugar-apple or sweetsop) is a species of Annona native to the tropical Americas and widely grown in Colombia, El Salvador, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines. Its exact native range is unknown due to extensive cultivation, but thought to be in the Caribbean; the species was described from Jamaica. It is a semi-evergreen shrub or small tree reaching 6–8 meters (20–26 ft) tall. The leaves are alternate, simple, oblong-lanceolate, 5–17 cm (2.0–6.7 in) long and 2–5 centimeters (0.79–2.0 in) broad. The flowers are produced in clusters of 3-4, each flower 1.5–3 cm (0.59–1.2 in) across, with three large petals and three minute ones, yellow-green spotted purple at the base. The fruit is usually round, slightly pine cone-like, 6–10 cm (2.4–3.9 in) diameter and weighing 100–230 g (3.5–8.1 oz), with a scaly or lumpy skin. There are variations in shape and size. The fruit flesh is sweet, white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. The edible portion coats the seeds generously; a bit like the gooey portion of a tomato seed. Sugar-apple has a very distinct, sweet-smelling fragrance. The texture of the flesh that coats the seeds is a bit like the center of a very ripe guava (excluding the seeds). It is slightly grainy, a bit slippery, very sweet and very soft. The seeds are scattered through the fruit flesh; the seed coats are blackish-brown, 12–18 mm (0.47–0.71 in) long, and hard and shiny. There are also new varieties being developed in Taiwan. The atemoya or "pineapple sugar-apple", a hybrid between the Sugar Apple and the Cherimoya, is popular in Taiwan, although it was first developed in the USA in 1908. The fruit is similar in sweetness to the sugar apple but has a very different taste. Like the name suggests, it tastes like pineapple. The arrangement of seeds is in spaced rows, with the fruit's flesh filling most of th
fruit and making grooves for the seeds, instead of the flesh only occurring around the seeds. Unlike other Annona fruits, the Sugar Apple has segmented flesh. Sugar apple is a fruit of the tree Annona squamosa. It is sweet in taste due to higher fructose and reducing sugar content. Different cultures have many names for the species. In English, the fruit is most widely known as a sugar apple or sweetsop as well as a custard apple, especially in India and Australia (in the latter, a custard apple also refers to Annona reticulata, another closely related species). In Latin America, regional names include anon, anon de azucar, anona blanca, fruta do conde, cachiman, saramuyo, grenadilla (little grenade) and many others. In Brazil, it is called fruta-do-conde, fruta-de-conde, condessa, fruta-pinha, pinha (lit. cone), araticum, ata or anona. In India it is known as ata, aarticum, shareefa, sitaphal, seethaphal or seetha pazham ( literally meaning "Sita's fruit"). In Kerala, it is called aathachakka. Sugar-apple fruit is high in calories and is a good source of iron. It is the most widely cultivated of all the species of Annona, being grown widely throughout the tropics and warmer subtropics, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan; it was introduced to southern Asia before 1590. It is naturalized north to southern Florida in the United States and south to Bahia in Brazil, and is an invasive species in some areas. Like most species of Annona, it requires a tropical or subtropical climate with summer temperatures from 25 °C (77 °F) to 41 °C (106 °F), and mean winter temperatures above 15 °C (59 °F). It is sensitive to cold and frost, being defoliated below 10 °C (50 °F) and killed by temperatures of a couple of degrees below freezing. It is only moderately drought-tolerant, requiring rainfall above 700 mm, and will not produce fruit well during droughts.