English: Custard Apple; Sweetsop; Sugar-apple.
Synonym: Annona asiatica.
Name: Sitaphal; Sugar apple.
Clades:
Annonaceae.
Region: Caribbean; India.
Habitat: not known in a truly wild situation; subtropical to tropical; elevations up to 2000 metres; do well in hot and relatively dry climates; low-lying interior plains; tolerate occasional light frosts; prefers a moist but well-drained, sandy loam with a pH around 6; succeeds on rocky, alkaline soils with a pH up to 8; hardy, drought-resistant crop.
Content: alkaloids, cyclohexapeptides, acetogenins.
Use: fruit popular, edible, sweet, creamy as dessert, sherbet, ice cream, jellies; fibrous bark for cordage; wood for firewood.
BotanyAttractive, slow-growing, deciduous shrub or small tree; rounded or spreading, open crown; 3 to 6 metres tall.
Stem: light yellow sapwood and brownish heartwood are soft, light in weight, weak.
Fruit: sweet, like custard; creamy; 6–10 cm long, 10 cm in diameter; segmented, round to conical; with thick rind of knobby segments, pale green to blue-green, with a deep pink blush in certain varieties, flesh is fragrant and sweet, creamy white to light yellow, soft, slightly grainy, slippery, tastes like custard; seeds long, hard, shiny, brown to black coat; several dozen fruits in a season, when 3 - 4 years old.