Annona Squamosa

''Annona squamosa'' is a small, well-branched tree or shrub from the family Annonaceae that bears edible fruits called sugar-apples or . It tolerates a tropical lowland climate better than its relatives ''Annona reticulata'' and ''Annona cherimola'' (whose fruits often share the same name) helping make it the most widely cultivated of these species.
''Annona squamosa'' is a small, semi-(or late) deciduous,
much-branched shrub or small tree tall
similar to soursop ('' Annona muricata'').

Description

The fruit of ''A. squamosa'' (sugar-apple) has sweet whitish pulp, and is popular in tropical markets.

Stems and leaves

Branches with light brown bark and visible leaf scars; inner bark light yellow and slightly bitter; twigs become brown with light brown dots (lenticels – small, oval, rounded spots upon the stem or branch of a plant, from which the underlying tissues may protrude or roots may issue).

Thin, simple, alternate leaves occur singly, long and wide; rounded at the base and pointed at the tip (oblong-lanceolate). They are pale green on both surfaces and mostly hairless with slight hairs on the underside when young. The sides sometimes are slightly unequal and the leaf edges are without teeth, inconspicuously hairy when young.

The leaf stalks are long, green, and sparsely pubescent.

Flowers

Solitary or in short lateral clusters of 2–4 about long, greenish-yellow flowers on a hairy, slender long stalk. Three green outer petals, purplish at the base, oblong, long, and wide, three inner petals reduced to minute scales or absent. Very numerous stamens; crowded, white, less than long; ovary light green. Styles white, crowded on the raised axis. Each pistil forms a separate tubercle (small rounded wartlike protuberance), mostly long and wide which matures into the aggregate fruit.

Flowering occurs in spring-early summer and flowers are pollinated by nitidulid beetles. Its pollen is shed as permanent tetrads.

Fruits and reproduction

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 genus (and more like a giant raspberry instead).

The round or heart-shaped greenish yellow, ripened aggregate fruit is pendulous on a thickened stalk; in diameter with many round protuberances and covered with a powdery bloom. Fruits are formed of loosely cohering or almost free carpels (the ripened pistels).

The pulp is white tinged yellow, edible and sweetly aromatic. Each carpel containing an oblong, shiny and smooth, dark brown to black, long seed.

Chemistry

The diterpenoid alkaloid atisine is the most abundant alkaloid in the root. Other constituents of ''Annona squamosa'' include the alkaloids oxophoebine, reticuline, isocorydine, and methylcorydaldine, and the flavonoid quercetin-3-O-glucoside.

Bayer AG has patented the extraction process and molecular identity of the annonaceous acetogenin annonin, as well as its use as a biopesticide. Other acetogenins have been isolated from the seeds, bark, and leaves.

Distribution and habitat

''Annona squamosa'' is native to the tropical Americas and West Indies, but the exact origin is unknown. It is now the most widely cultivated of all the species of '' Annona'', being grown for its fruit throughout the tropics and warmer subtropics, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and China as far north as Suzhou; it was introduced to southern Asia before 1590. It is naturalized as far north as southern Florida in the United States and as south as Bahia in Brazil, Bangladesh, and is an invasive species in some areas.

;Native
:Neotropic
::Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands.
::Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala
::Northern South America: Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela
::Western South America: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
::Southern South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

;Current (naturalized and native)
:Neotropic
::Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Florida, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands.
::Pacific: Samoa, Tonga
::North America: Mexico
::Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
::Northern South America: French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela
::Western South America: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
::Southern South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
:Afrotropic: Angola, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar, Kenya
:Australasia: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands
:Indomalaya: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam
:Palearctic: Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Malta, Israel

Climate and cultivation

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 and killed by temperatures of a couple of degrees below freezing. It is only moderately drought-tolerant, requiring at least of annual rainfall, and will not produce fruit well during droughts.

It will grow from sea level to an altitude of and does well in hot dry climates, differing in its tolerance of lowland tropics from many of the other fruit bearers in the '' Annona'' family.

It is quite a prolific bearer, and it will produce fruit in as little as two to three years. A five-year-old tree can 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. Natural pollinators include beetles (coleoptera) of the families Nitidulidae, Staphylinidae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae and Scarabaeidae.

Ecology

In the Philippines, the fruit is commonly eaten by the Philippine fruit bat (''kabag'' or ''kabog''), which then spreads the seeds from island to island.

It is a host plant for larvae of the butterfly ''Graphium agamemnon'' (tailed jay).

Uses

In traditional Indian, Thai, and Native American medicines, the leaves are boiled down with water, possibly mixed with other specific botanicals, and used in a decoction to treat dysentery and urinary tract infection. In traditional Indian medicine, the leaves are also crushed for use as a poultice, and applied to wounds. In Mexico, the leaves are rubbed on floors and put in hens' nests, to repel lice.
In Haiti, the fruit is known as ''cachiman'' and is used to simply make juice.
In Lebanon and Syria, it is made into a variety of desserts and sweets, referred to as ''ashta''.

References

External links

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Annona squamosa L.
Medicinal Plant Images Database (School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University)

{{taxonbar, from=Q275620

squamosa
Trees of the Caribbean
Flora of Brazil
Flora of the Cerrado
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Flora of South America
Trees of Guatemala
Flora without expected TNC conservation status