The ilama or ilama tree (''Annona macroprophyllata'') is a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

found in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. The name is derived from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

''ilamatzapotl'', of which the rough translation is "old woman's ''

sapote Sapote (from Nahuatl ''tzapotl'') is a term for a soft, edible fruit. The word is incorporated into the common names of several unrelated fruit-bearing plants native to southern Mexico, Central America and northern parts of South America. It is al ...

''". The name is also applied to a similar fruit, ''soncoya'' or ''cabeza de negro'' (''

Annona purpurea ''Annona purpurea'' is an edible fruit and medicinal plant in the Annonaceae family. It is native to Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. Its common names include soncoya, sincuya, and cabeza de negro. Description It is a small t ...

''). The ilama fruit is eaten halved, by scooping the flesh out of the rind, and usually chilled when served. It is sometimes served with cream and sugar to intensify the flavor, or with a drop of

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

juice to highlight a tart and bitter note. The ilama is probably the finest annonaceous fruit which can be grown in the tropical lowlands and the ilama may be termed the cherimoya of the lowlands.

Fruit

The ilama has a

compound fruit The term compound fruit is not used in technical botanical writing, but is sometimes used when it is not clear which of several fruit types is involved. A compound fruit is "composed of two or more similar parts". A compound fruit may be: * An aggr ...

, which is either cone-shaped, heart-shaped, or ovular. Resembling the

cherimoya 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 a ...

, it is about long and may weigh as much as . Generally, the ilama is covered with more-or-less pronounced, triangular lobules, though some fruits on the same tree may vary from bumpy to fairly smooth. There are two types of ilama, green and pink. The green type has a flesh that is white and sweet, while the pink type has rosy-colored flesh with a tart taste. The rind, or skin, of the ilama varies from a pale-green color to a deep-pink or purplish color, coated with a thick layer of velvety, gray-white

bloom Bloom or blooming may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Bloom, one or more flowers on a flowering plant * Algal bloom, a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system * Jellyfish bloom, a collective n ...

. It is about 1/4 inch thick (6 mm), leathery, fairly soft, with a grainy surface. The flesh towards the fruit's center is somewhat fibrous, but smooth and custardy near the rind. The flesh varies from being dryish to being fairly juicy, and contains 25 to 80 hard, smooth, brown, cylindrical seeds, about long, and wide. Each seed is enclosed in a close-fitting membrane that, when split, allows the seed to slip out.

Tree

The tree which produces the ilama stands erect at about , often branching at ground level. It is distinguished by its aromatic, pale-brownish-grey, furrowed bark and glossy, thin, elliptic to

obovate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

oblanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

leaves, long. Clasping the base of the flowering branchlets are one or two leaf-like, nearly circular, glabrous

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s, about in length. New growth is tinged a reddish or coppery color. The solitary flowers have three minutely hairy, long and narrow petals, maroon in color, with small, rusty, hairy

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s, and

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

-like,

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

-bearing inner petals.

Cultivation

Fruit harvest of the ilama tree occurs in late June in Mexico, and only lasts about two weeks. In Guatemala, the harvest season extends from late July to September, and from July to December where the ilama is cultivated in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. According to tradition, the fruits are not to be picked until cracking occurs, but they can be picked a little earlier and held up to three days for softening to take place. If the ilama is picked too early, it will never ripen. The yield of the ilama is typically low. During the normal fruiting period, some trees will have no fruits; others only three to 10, while exceptional trees may bear as many as 85 to 100 fruits per season.

History

Francisco Hernandez was one of the first people to document the ilama. He was sent by King Philip II of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 1570 to take note of the useful products of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. For many years, people confused it with the

soursop Soursop (also called ''graviola, guyabano'', and in Hispanic America, ''guanábana'') is the fruit of ''Annona muricata'', a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and the Caribbean and is wid ...

or the custard apple. The ilama is native and grows wild in the foothills of the southwest coast of Mexico and of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast of

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. It is strictly a

tropical plant Tropical vegetation is any vegetation in tropical latitudes. Plant life that occurs in climates that are warm year-round is in general more biologically diverse that in other latitudes. Some tropical areas may receive abundant rain the whole ye ...

. It does not grow naturally higher than in Mexico; although in El Salvador it is cultivated at , and in

, it is cultivated up to . The ilama survives best in climates where there is a long dry season followed by plentiful rainfall. The tree is irrigated in areas where rainfall does not fall periodically.

Nutrition

According to analyses made in El Salvador, the food value per 100 g of edible portion of the fruit is as follows: *

Moisture Moisture is the presence of a liquid, especially water, often in trace amounts. Small amounts of water may be found, for example, in the air (humidity), in foods, and in some commercial products. Moisture also refers to the amount of water vapo ...

, 71.5 g *

Protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

, 0.447 g *

Fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers spec ...

, 0.16 g *

Fiber Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...

, 1.3 g *

Ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

, 1.37 g *

Calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to ...

, 31.6 mg *

Phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

, 51.7 mg *

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

, 0.70 mg *

Carotene The term carotene (also carotin, from the Latin ''carota'', "carrot") is used for many related unsaturated hydrocarbon substances having the formula C40Hx, which are synthesized by plants but in general cannot be made by animals (with the exc ...

, 0.011 mg *

Thiamine Thiamine, also known as thiamin and vitamin B1, is a vitamin, an essential micronutrient, that cannot be made in the body. It is found in food and commercially synthesized to be a dietary supplement or medication. Phosphorylated forms of thi ...

, 0.235 mg *

Riboflavin Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a vitamin found in food and sold as a dietary supplement. It is essential to the formation of two major coenzymes, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. These coenzymes are involved in ...

, 0.297 mg *

Niacin Niacin, also known as nicotinic acid, is an organic compound and a form of vitamin B3, an essential human nutrient. It can be manufactured by plants and animals from the amino acid tryptophan. Niacin is obtained in the diet from a variet ...

, 2.177 mg *

Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...

, 13.6 mg

Trivia

The ilama fruit was used as a

plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any narrative technique, technique in a narrative used to move the Plot (narrative), plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing ...

in the 1997

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema is an Indian cinema, Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ...

Guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverentia ...

'', directed by

Rajeev Anchal Rajiv Anchal (born 20 December 1956) is a film director, screenwriter, and sculptor who works in Malayalam language cinema. In 1997, he made ''Guru'', India's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His fir ...

. This was India's official entry to the 1997 Academy Award, to be considered for nomination for the

Best Foreign Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

. Unlike its portrayal in the film, eating ilama fruit does not cause blindness, nor does the seed cure one of blindness.

References

*Davidson, Alan. ''Oxford Companion to Food'' (1999). "Ilama", pp. 395–396.

External links

The Ilama
-

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

Trade Winds Fruit Ilama Page

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q1576933 Tropical fruit Trees of El Salvador Trees of Guatemala Trees of Honduras Trees of Mexico Annona