The sugar-apple or sweet-sop is the edible fruit of ''

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 ...

'', the most widely grown species of '' Annona'' and a native of

tropical climate Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...

in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

and West Indies.

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

traders aboard the Manila galleons docking in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

brought it to Asia. The fruit is spherical-conical, in diameter and long, and weighing , with a thick rind composed of knobby segments. The color is typically pale green through blue-green, with a deep pink blush in certain varieties, and typically has a bloom. It is unique among ''Annona'' fruits in being segmented; the segments tend to separate when ripe, exposing the interior. The flesh is fragrant and sweet, creamy white through light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. It is found adhering to seeds forming individual segments arranged in a single layer around a conical core. It is soft, slightly grainy, and slippery. The hard, shiny seeds may number 20–40 or more per fruit and have a brown to black coat, although varieties exist that are almost seedless. The seeds can be ground for use as an insecticide. There are also new varieties being developed in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and Hong Kong. The atemoya or "pineapple sugar-apple", a hybrid between the sugar-apple and the cherimoya, is popular in Taiwan, although it was first developed in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1908. The fruit is similar in sweetness to the sugar-apple but has a very different taste. As its name suggests, it tastes like pineapple.

Nutrition and uses

Sugar-apple is high in energy, an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese, a good source of thiamine and vitamin B₆, and provides vitamin B₂, B₃ B₅, B₉, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium in fair quantities. For uses of other fruit from the Custard-apple family see: * Atemoya (a hybrid between ''A. squamosa'' and ''A. cherimoya'') * Cherimoya * Custard-apple

Gallery

File:Sitapalam.jpg, Sugar apple in Tamil Nadu, India File:Pineapple shijia.jpg, Sugar apple (right), with Taiwanese "pineapple ''shijia''" ( atemoya) (left) File:Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa) interior.jpg, The sugar apple readily breaks open when ripe. File:Sugar Apple deconstructed.jpg, A deconstruction of a sugar apple, showing a lobe of fruit and pulpy segments with seeds. File:Sugar Apple pulp.jpg, A sugar apple ready to eat File:Sugar-apple (Annona squamosa) seeds.jpg, Sugar-apple (Annona squamosa) seeds File:Red Sugar Apple.jpg, Red Sugar Apples from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

File:Sugar-apples 5, Taitung County, Dec 06.JPG, Sugar apples in Taitung,

File:Ata Sugar-apple Pinha Fruta do conde.JPG, A sugar apple in Goiânia,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

File:Sugar Apple Tree.jpg, Sugar Apple Tree in

File:Aata by Mayeenul Islam.jpg, Two sugar apples in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Names

Custard Apple is known by different names throughout South,

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

Asia. * Tamil: சீத்தாப்பழம் (Seethapazham) * Bengali: আতা (Aata) * Bhojpuri: शरीफ़ा (Shareefa) * Gujarati: સીતાફળ (Seetaphal) *

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: सीताफल (Seetaphal) * Kannada:ಸೀತಾಫಲ (Seetaphal) *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

: സീതഫലം (Seetaphazham) * Marathi: सीताफळ (Seetaphaḷa) *

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Tetum , nativename=Tetun , states= Indonesia East Timor , speakers=, mostly in Indonesia , date=2010–2011 , ref=e18 , speakers2=50,000 L2-speakers in Indonesia and East Timor , familycolor=Austronesian , fam2=Malayo-Polynesian , fam3= Central–East ...

: Ai-ata

References

External links

Flora of North America: ''Annona squamosa''
*{{GRIN , ''Annona squamosa'' , 3503
Growing Sugar Apple ''Annona squamosa''
Annona Edible fruits Trees of the Caribbean Crops originating from the Americas Crops originating from South America Flora without expected TNC conservation status

Nutrition and uses

Gallery

Names

See also

References

External links