Sweetsop, sugar-apple

Annona asiatica Linnaeus

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.

Flowering spring-early summer. Dryish sandy substrates, dry hammocks; 0-50 m; introduced; Fla.; native to West Indies; naturalized or cultivated circumtropically.

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