Sugar-apple

Sugar Apple

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Sugar-apple

Annona squamosa (also called sugar-apple, or sweetsop) is a species of Annona
Annona

Annona is the second largest genus, after Guatteria, in the plant family Annonaceae, containing approximately 110 species of mostly Neotropical and Afrotropical trees and shrubs....
native to the tropical Americas. Its exact native range is unknown due to extensive cultivation, but thought to be in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
; the species was described from Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
. And in Indonesia it become extinct.

It is a semi-evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
or small tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
reaching tall. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are alternate, simple, oblong-lanceolate, long and broad.

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Encyclopedia

Caribbean

Jamaica

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
shrub

Shrub

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
reaching tall. The leaves

Leaf

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are produced in clusters of 3-4, each flower across, with three large petals and three minute ones, yellow-green spotted purple at the base.

The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is usually round, slightly pine cone-like, diameter and weighing , 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

Custard

Custard is a range of preparations based on milk and Egg s, thickened with heat. Most commonly, custard refers to a dessert or dessert sauce, but custard bases are also used for quiches and other savoury foods....
. 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 seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s are scattered through the fruit flesh; the seed coats are blackish-brown, long, and hard and shiny.

There are also new varieties being developed in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
. There is a pineapple sugar-apple, which is similar in sweetness 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 the fruit and making grooves for the seeds, instead of the flesh only occurring around the seeds.

Nomenclature

Different cultures have many names for the species. In English it is most widely known as sugar-apple or sweetsop, also sometimes custard-apple

Custard-apple

The custard-apple, also called bullock's heart or bull's heart, is the fruit of the tree Annona reticulata. This tree is a small deciduous or semi-evergreen tree sometimes reaching tall and a native of the tropical New World that prefers low elevations, and a warm, humid climate....
(especially in India) though technically incorrectly, as this name usually refers to Annona reticulata
Annona reticulata

Annona reticulata is a small deciduous or semi-evergreen tree in the plant family Annonaceae.It is best known for its fruit, called Custard-apple, a name it shares with fruits of other species from the same family: Annona cherimola and Annona squamosa or sometimes it is called Wild-sweetsop....
, another closely related species. In Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
regional names include anón, anón de azucar, anona blanca, fruta do conde, cachiman, saramuyo, and many others. In India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
it is known as aarticum, shareefa, sitaphal or seethaphal (literally meaning "sita

SITA

SITA is a multinational corporation information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the aviation industry....
fruit" as the fruit has too many seeds and monkeys don't eat them – monkeys are believed to be friends of Rama, Sita's husband), and in Indonesia, srimatikiya or mostly people call it as "srikaya". The Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
ese call it Sakya (; Taiwanese: sek-khia, sek-kia) because one cultivar resembles the top part of Sakyamuni's head. Its name in Burmese

Burmese language

The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the government officially recognizes the language as Myanmar in English, most continue to refer to the language as Burmese....
is aajaa thee. In Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
, it is called srikaya. In the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
it is called atis. In Thailand

Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar....
it is called noi-na (????????) which is also the common name for a hand-grenade because of its appearance. In Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
, it is called mãng c?u ta or na. In Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
, it is called fruta do conde, pinha or ata. In the Middle East region, it is called "achta".

Cultivation and uses

Sugar-apple fruit is high in calories

Food energy

Food energy is the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion.Like other forms of energy, food energy is expressed in calories or joules....
and is a good source of iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
. It is the most widely cultivated of all the species of Annona, being grown widely throughout the tropics and warmer subtropics; it was introduced to southern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
before 1590. It is naturalized

Naturalisation (biology)

In biology, naturalisation is the process when foreign or cultivated plants or animals have spread into the wild, where they multiply by natural regeneration....
north to southern Florida

Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
and south to Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast.It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after S?o Paulo , Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro , and the fifth-largest in size....
in Brazil

Brazil

Invasive species

Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions. The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically....
in some areas.

Like most species of Annona, it requires a tropical or subtropical climate with summer temperatures from to , and mean winter temperatures above . It is sensitive to cold and frost, being defoliated below 10 °C and killed by temperatures of a few degrees below freezing. It is only moderately drought-tolerant, requiring rainfall above 700 mm, and not producing fruit well during droughts.

It is quite a prolific bearer and will produce fruit in as little as two to three years. A tree five years old may produce as many as 50 sugar-apples. Poor fruit production has been reported in Florida because there are few natural pollinators (honeybees have a difficult time penetrating the tightly closed female flowers); however hand pollination with a natural fiber brush is effective in increasing yield.

In the Philippines, the fruit is commonly eaten by the Philippine Fruit Bat

Fruit Bat

Fruit Bat can refer to:* Megabats, species of bats which eat fruit.* Fruitbat, a British musician.* Fruit Bats, an American band....
(Kabag or Kabog) which then spreads the seeds from island to island.

In the Philippines there is a company that produces Sugar apple wine.

It is a host plant for larvae of the butterfly Graphium agamemnon
Graphium agamemnon

The Tailed Jay is a predominantly green and black tropical butterfly that belongs to the swallowtail family. The butterfly is also called Green Spotted Triangle, Tailed Green Jay or the Green Triangle....
(Tailed Jay).

It is used by some societies in India to prepare a hair tonic. The seeds are also ground and applied to hair to get rid of lice, however, it must be kept away from the eyes as it is highly irritant and can cause blindness.

Sugar-apple

Nomenclature

Cultivation and uses

See also