The sugar-apple or sweet-sop is the edible fruit of '' Annona squamosa'', the most widely grown species of '' Annona'' and a native of tropical climate in the Americas and

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

. Spanish traders aboard the Manila galleons docking in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

brought it to Asia. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

is spherical-conical, in diameter and long, and weighing , with a thick rind composed of knobby segments. The color is typically pale green through blue-green, with a deep pink blush in certain varieties, and typically has a

bloom Bloom or blooming may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Bloom, one or more flowers on a flowering plant * Algal bloom, a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system * Jellyfish bloom, a collective n ...

. It is unique among ''Annona'' fruits in being segmented; the segments tend to separate when ripe, exposing the interior. The flesh is fragrant and sweet, creamy white through light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. It is found adhering to seeds forming individual segments arranged in a single layer around a conical core. It is soft, slightly grainy, and slippery. The hard, shiny seeds may number 20–40 or more per fruit and have a brown to black coat, although varieties exist that are almost seedless. The seeds can be ground for use as an insecticide. There are also new varieties being developed in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

and Hong Kong. The

atemoya The atemoya, ''Annona × atemoya'', or ''Annona squamosa × Annona cherimola'' is a hybrid of two fruits – the sugar-apple (''Annona squamosa'') and the cherimoya (''Annona cherimola'') – which are both native to the American tropics. This ...

or "pineapple sugar-apple", a hybrid between the sugar-apple and the cherimoya, is popular in Taiwan, although it was first developed in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in 1908. The fruit is similar in sweetness to the sugar-apple but has a very different taste. As its name suggests, it tastes like pineapple.

Nutrition and uses

Sugar-apple is high in

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

, an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese, a good source of thiamine and vitamin B₆, and provides vitamin B₂, B₃ B₅, B₉, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium in fair quantities. For uses of other fruit from the Custard-apple family see: *

Atemoya The atemoya, ''Annona × atemoya'', or ''Annona squamosa × Annona cherimola'' is a hybrid of two fruits – the sugar-apple (''Annona squamosa'') and the cherimoya (''Annona cherimola'') – which are both native to the American tropics. This ...

(a hybrid between ''A. squamosa'' and ''A. cherimoya'') * Cherimoya * Custard-apple

Gallery

File:Sitapalam.jpg, Sugar apple in Tamil Nadu, India File:Pineapple shijia.jpg, Sugar apple (right), with Taiwanese "pineapple ''shijia''" (

) (left) File:Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa) interior.jpg, The sugar apple readily breaks open when ripe. File:Sugar Apple deconstructed.jpg, A deconstruction of a sugar apple, showing a lobe of fruit and pulpy segments with seeds. File:Sugar Apple pulp.jpg, A sugar apple ready to eat File:Sugar-apple (Annona squamosa) seeds.jpg, Sugar-apple (Annona squamosa) seeds File:Red Sugar Apple.jpg, Red Sugar Apples from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

File:Sugar-apples 5, Taitung County, Dec 06.JPG, Sugar apples in Taitung,

File:Ata Sugar-apple Pinha Fruta do conde.JPG, A sugar apple in Goiânia,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

File:Sugar Apple Tree.jpg, Sugar Apple Tree in

File:Aata by Mayeenul Islam.jpg, Two sugar apples in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

Names

Custard Apple is known by different names throughout South, East and Southeast Asia. * Tamil: சீத்தாப்பழம் (Seethapazham) * Bengali: আতা (Aata) * Bhojpuri: शरीफ़ा (Shareefa) * Gujarati: સીતાફળ (Seetaphal) *

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

: सीताफल (Seetaphal) *

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

:ಸೀತಾಫಲ (Seetaphal) *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

: സീതഫലം (Seetaphazham) *

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

: सीताफळ (Seetaphaḷa) *

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

: شریفہ (Shareefa) * Tetum: Ai-ata

References

External links

Flora of North America: ''Annona squamosa''
*{{GRIN , ''Annona squamosa'' , 3503
Growing Sugar Apple ''Annona squamosa''
Annona Edible fruits Trees of the Caribbean Crops originating from the Americas Crops originating from South America Flora without expected TNC conservation status