Custard Apple

Description

The cherimoya (Annona cherimola), also spelled chirimoya and called chirimuya by the Inca people, is a species of edible fruit-bearing plant in the genus Annona, from the family Annonaceae, which includes the closely related sweetsop and soursop. The plant has long been believed to be native to Ecuador and Peru, with cultivation practiced in the Andes and Central America, although a recent hypothesis postulates Central America as the origin instead, because many of the plant's wild relatives occur in this area. Cherimoya is grown in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world including Central America, eastern South America, Southern California, South Asia, Australia, the Mediterranean region and North Africa. American writer Mark Twain called the cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men". The creamy texture of the flesh gives the fruit its secondary name, the custard apple. Annona cherimola is a fairly dense, fast-growing, woody, briefly deciduous but mostly evergreen, low-branched, spreading tree or shrub, 5 to 9 metres (16 to 30 ft) tall. Mature branches are sappy and woody. Young branches and twigs have a matting of short, fine, rust-colored hairs.The leathery leaves are 5-25 centimetres (2.0-9.8 in) long 3-10 centimetres (1.2-3.9 in) wide, and mostly elliptic, pointed at the ends and rounded near the leaf stalk. When young, they are covered with soft, fine, tangled, rust-colored hairs. When mature, the leaves bear hairs only along the veins on the undersurface. The tops are hairless and a dull medium green with paler veins, the backs are velvety, dull grey-green with raised pale green veins. New leaves are whitish below. Annona (from Taíno annon) is a genus of flowering plants in the pawpaw/sugar apple family, Annonaceae. It is the second largest genus in the family after Guatteria, containing approximately 166 species of mostly Neotropical and Afrotropical trees and shrubs. The generic name derives from anón, a Hispaniolan Taíno word for the fruit. Paleoethnobotanical studies have dated Annona exploitation and cultivation in the Yautepec River region of Medicoto to approximately 1000 BC. Plants of the genus have several common names, including sugar-apple, soursop, and guanabana. Currently, seven Annona species and one hybrid are grown for domestic or commercial use, mostly for the edible and nutritious fruits; several others also produce edible fruits.