English: Custard apple, Soursop.
Spanish: Guanábana; Graviola.
Source:
Sense provings.
Region: northern south America, southern Central America, Caribbean.
Habitat: coastal limestone, lowland woodland; best in the moist, humid tropical and subtropical lowlands; elevations up to about 1000 metres; sunny position; moist but well-drained, sandy loam, deep rich loam, light-textured, alkaline soils; very drought tolerant when grown.
Content: vitamin A; vitamin C; acetogenins, cytotoxic; isoquinoline alkaloids, reticuline; galactomannan, sitosterol, stigmasterol, cholesterol.
Use: fruit, raw or cooked, juicy, refreshingly acid, aroma like pineapple; fruits fresh for dessert when fully ripe; immature fruits are cooked as a vegetable in soups; young shoots cooked as a vegetable; leaves for corossol tea.
BotanyFast-growing, small, evergreen tree; about 7 metres tall.
Stem: 15cm in diameter; branching from near the base; contains an irritant sap.
Leaves: aroma similar to blackcurrants.
Flowers: protandrous, and the pollen is shed as the outer petals open towards the evening; inner petals open much later and only very slightly, admitting small insects attracted by the fragrance of the flowers; few flowers set fruit.
Pollination: by small insects
Fruit: ovoid; contains many seeds; 20 by 10 cm; up to 1 kilo weight; fruiting starts in the 2nd year.
Seeds: toxic.