Annona squamosa is a small, well-branched tree or shrub from the family Annonaceae that bears edible fruits called sugar apples, sweetsops or custard apples. It tolerates a tropical lowland climate better than its relatives Annona reticulata and Annona cherimola, and is the most widely cultivated of these Annona species.
Annona squamosa is semi-(or late) deciduous, and 3 to 8 metres (10 to 26 feet) tall, similar to soursop (Annona muricata). It is a native of tropical climate in the Americas, and Spanish traders aboard the Manila galleons docking in the Philippines brought it to Asia.
The atemoya or "pineapple sugar-apple", a hybrid between the sugar-apple and the cherimoya, is common in Taiwan, although it was first developed in the United States in 1908. The fruit is similar in sweetness to the sugar-apple; as its name suggests, it tastes like pineapple.
Description
Fruits ripen 3 to 4 months after flowering. Aggregate and soft fruits form from the numerous and loosely united pistils of a flower which become enlarged and mature into fruits which are distinct from fruits of other species of the Annona genus.
The round or heart-shaped, greenish yellow, ripened aggregate fruit is pendulous on a thickened stalk;
The pulp is white tinged yellow, edible and sweetly aromatic. Each carpel containing an oblong, shiny and smooth, dark brown to black, 1.3 to 1.6 cm (1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in) long seed.
The fruit is spherical-conical, 5–10 centimetres (2–4 inches) in diameter and 6–10 cm (2+1⁄4–4 in) long, and weighing 100–240 grams (3.5–8.5 ounces), with a thick rind composed of knobby segments. The colour is typically pale green through blue-green, with a deep pink blush in certain varieties, and typically has a bloom. It is unique among Annona fruits in being segmented; the segments tend to separate when ripe, exposing the interior pulp.
The flesh is fragrant and sweet, creamy white through light yellow, and resembles...
