Annona reticulata L.

• Title

  Annona reticulata L.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Annona reticulata L.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Annona reticulata Corazon Custard Apple Family Annonaceae Custard Apple Family Annona reticulata Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 527. 1753. Readily known by slender, spreading or partly drooping, leafy branches, with large, long, narrow leaves, and by the large, round, edible, coarsely reticulated fruit, the Custard Apple, also called Bullock's Heart, is a plentiful small tree in Porto Rico, and occurs also on Vieques Island, growing in various situations at lower and middle elevations; it is often planted for its fruit, as elsewhere in tropical regions. Geographically, it is distributed nearly all over the West Indies. The brownish wood is light, and weak. As an indigenous food-fruit, this must have been available to the aborigines. Annona reticulata (referring to the surface of the fruit) reaches a maximum height of about 10 meters, with gray, slightly fissured bark; the twigs are brownish-hairy. The oblong, or lance-shaped, pointed, sometimes long-pointed, rather dull green leaves are from 9 to 20 centimeters long, on stalks from 6 to 25 millimeters long; they are hairy when young, but become smooth when old. The flowers, borne among the leaves, are several together, or solitary, on short, nodding stalks; the triangular calyx-lobes are pointed; the yellow, or greenish-yellow, outer petals are oblong, from 2 to 3 centimeters long, keeled on the inner side, with a purple blotch at the base; the minute inner petals are ovate. The nearly globular fruit, reddish-brown when ripe, is from 8 to 12 centimeters in diameter, characteristically reticulate-areolate, its pulp yellowish; the seeds are oblong, brown, shining. An account of the genus Annona will be found with our description of Annona muricata.