Annona asiatica L.

Common Names : Aathi, Aatha, Aathachakka, Amruthakkai, Seethappazham, Sugar apple, Custard apple, Sweet sop, Sweetsop-Anon, Araticum

Flowering Period : June - October

Distribution : Native of Central America and West Indies

Habitat : Cultivated and almost naturalised

Uses : Fruit - raw. The sweet and creamy fruits are highly regarded as a dessert fruit. hey can also be used to make sherbet, ice cream, jellies etc. The young shoots, combined with peppermint, are used in the West Indies to relieve colds and chills. The unripe fruit is astringent. The root is a drastic purgative. An infusion of the leaves and fruit is used to aid digestion and treat rheumatism. The powdered seeds are an excellent vermifuge. The tree is a good source of firewood.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 6 m high, brownish or brownish-black; branchlets seriaceous, glabrous when mature. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, estipulate; petiole 6-20 mm long, stout, glabrous, grooved above; lamina 5-17 x 2-7 cm, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, base acute, obtuse, cuneate, or round, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-12 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, axillary, solitary or a few together, leaf-opposed; pedicels 1-3 cm long, glabrous; sepals 3, 2-3 x 3-4 mm, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, pubescent outside; petals 6 [3+3], outer 3 petals, 1.5-3 x. 3-0.5 cm, linear-oblong, keeled inside, thick, greenish-white or yellow, reddish at base inside, pubescent outside, inner three petals usually missing or rudimentary, ovate, ca. 1 mm long; stamens many, ca. 1 mm long, anther thecae narrow, with ovoid top of connectives; carpels many, superior, ca. 1 mm long, subconnate, ovoid, pubescent, 1-ovuled, style oblong, stigma entire. Fruit an aggregate of berry, 8-10 cm across, ovoid, greenish, glabrous, tuberculate with rounded tips, glaucous, pulp white; seeds many, black, shiny.