Custard apple (Annona reticulata)

Features and Characteristics

Annona reticulata, commonly called sugar apple, custard apple or bullock’s heart, is a small, evergreen to deciduous, tropical tree that is native to the West Indies. Early on, it was brought to the mainland where it is now cultivated from southern Mexico through Central America to Peru and Brazil. It typically grows in an upright but sometimes irregular form to 20-35′ tall, featuring slender, long-pointed, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate green leaves (to 4-8″ long). Leaves are malodorous when bruised. Leaves may drop in winter near the far northern edge of its growing range (e.g., southern Florida). Fragrant, yellowish-green flowers (to 1″ long) bloom in spring in small pendant clusters. Flowers give way to reddish-yellow to brown fruits (to 5″ long) which feature an edible creamy custard-like white flesh. Each fruit typically weighs 1-2 pounds. Each fruit is covered in polygonal plates. Thin fruit skin may be distinctly reticulated (net-veined), hence the specific epithet. Fruits vary in both size (heart-shaped to globular to irregular) and taste quality (juicy and sweet to hard and mediocre). This species is generally not cultivated for its fruits. Other genus members that are regularly cultivated for fruit include Annona cherimola (cherimoya), Annona squamosa (sweetsop) and Annona muricata (soursop).

Genus name comes from the Latinized version of the American Indian (Taino) vernacular name for the cherimoya, soursop or custard-apple.