page_title: Annona squamosa
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Annona squamosa / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Custard-apple, sugar-apple, sweetsop, sitaphal or Sita's fruit, shareefah, aataa or Rahmapfel Annona squamosa in Hyderabad , India.
context_page_description: Annona squamosa is a small, well-branched tree or shrub from the family Annonaceae that bears edible fruits called sugar-apples or sweetsops. It tolerates a tropical lowland climate better than its relatives Annona reticulata and Annona cherimola helping make it the most widely cultivated of these species.Annona squamosa is a small, semi- deciduous,
  much branched shrub or small tree 3 metres to 8 metres tall
  similar to soursop.
context_section_description: The fruit of A. squamosa (sugar-apple) has sweet whitish pulp, and is popular in tropical markets.
  Stems and leaves
  Branches with light brown bark and visible leaf scars; inner bark light yellow and slightly bitter; twigs become brown with light brown dots (lenticels – small, oval, rounded spots upon the stem or branch of a plant, from which the underlying tissues may protrude or roots may issue).
  Thin, simple, alternate leaves occur singly, 5 centimetres (2.0 in) to 17 centimetres (6.7 in) long and 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 6 centimetres (2.4 in) wide; rounded at the base and pointed at the tip (oblong-lanceolate). Pale green on both surfaces and mostly hairless with slight hairs on the underside when young.  The sides sometimes are slightly unequal and the leaf edges are without teeth, inconspicuously hairy when young.
  Leaf stalks are 0.4 centimetres (0.16 in) to 2.2 centimetres (0.87 in) long, green, and sparsely pubescent.
  Flowers
  Solitary or in short lateral clusters of 2–4 about 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) long, greenish-yellow flowers on a hairy, slender 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long stalk.  Three green outer petals, purplish at the base, oblong, 1.6 centimetres (0.63 in) to 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) long, and 0.6 centimetres (0.24 in) to 0.75 centimetres (0.30 in) wide, three inner petals reduced to minute scales or absent. Very numerous stamens; crowded, white, less than 1.6 centimetres (0.63 in) long; ovary light green. Styles white, crowded on the raised axis. Each pistil forms a separate tubercle (small rounded wartlike protuberance), mostly 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in) to 1.9 centimetres (0.75 in) long and 0.6 centimetres (0.24 in) to 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in) wide which matures into the aggregate fruit.
  Flowering occurs in spring-early summer and flowers are pollinated by nitidulid beetles. Its pollen is shed as permanent tetrads.
  Fruits and reproduction
  Aggregate and soft fruits form from the numerous and loosely united pistils of a flower which become enlarged  and mature into fruits which are distinct from fruits of other species of genus (and more like a giant raspberry instead).
  The round or heart-shaped greenish yellow, ripened aggregate fruit is pendulous on a thickened stalk; 5 centimetres (2.0 in) to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in diameter with many round protuberances and covered with a powdery bloom. Fruits are formed of loosely cohering or almost free carpels (the ripened pistels).
  The pulp is white tinged yellow, edible and sweetly aromatic. Each carpel containing an oblong, shiny and smooth, dark brown to black, 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in) to 1.6 centimetres (0.63 in) long seed.
caption: Flower
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