Custard apple is a common name for a fruit and for the tree that bears it, ''
Annona reticulata
''Annona reticulata'' is a small deciduous or semi-evergreen tree in the plant family Annonaceae and part of the Annonas group. It is best known for its fruit, called custard apple, a common name shared with fruits of several other species in t ...
.''
The tree’s fruits vary in shape; they may be heart-shaped, spherical, oblong or irregular. Their size ranges from 7 to 12 cm (2.8 to 4.7 in), depending on the cultivar. When ripe, the fruit is brown or yellowish, with red highlights and a varying degree of reticulation, depending again on the variety. The flesh varies from juicy and very aromatic to hard with an astringent taste.
The flavor is sweet and pleasant, akin to the taste of
custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...
.
The custard apple is native to the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, but has also been found to have grown on the island of
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...
as early as 1000 CE.
Some similar fruits produced by related trees are also sometimes called custard apples. These include:
*
Annonaceae
The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...
, members of the soursop family.
**''
Asimina triloba
''Asimina triloba'', the American papaw, pawpaw, paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names, is a small deciduous tree native to the eastern United States and Canada, producing a large, yellowish-green to brown fruit. ''Asimina'' is the onl ...
'', the "pawpaw", a deciduous tree, with a range from southern Ontario to Texas and Florida, that bears the largest edible fruit native to the United States or Canada.
**''
Annona cherimola
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 tree and fruit also called cherimoya
**''
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 cherim ...
'', a tree and fruit also called sugar apple or sweetsop
**''
Annona senegalensis
''Annona senegalensis'', commonly known as African custard-apple, wild custard apple, wild soursop, (Mandinka language), and (Wolof language) is a species of flowering plant in the custard apple family, Annonaceae. The specific epithet, ''seneg ...
'', a tree and fruit called wild custard-apple
*''
Casimiroa edulis
The white sapote, scientific name ''Casimiroa edulis'', also called casimiroa and Mexican apple, and known as ''cochitzapotl'' in the Nahuatl language (meaning "sleep-sapote") is a species of tropical fruiting tree in the family Rutaceae, native ...
'', in the rue or citrus family,
Rutaceae
The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rue[RUTACEAE](_blank)
in BoDD – Botanical Derm ...
.
References
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