The Annonaceous Fruits Being the Cherimoya, Bullock's Heart, Ilama, Papaya, Soursop and Sugar-Apple Found in the Tropics

By Wilson Popenoe

This article contains a wealth of geographical, historical and botanical information about the annonaceous family of fruits in the tropics. This book contains classic material dating back to the 1900s and before. The content has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473388055

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FRUITS

THE ANNONACEOUS FRUITS

THE annonas are tropical fruits composed of more or less coherent fleshy carpels or parts. More than 50 species are known, several of which are widely cultivated for their fruits. The family comprises 40 to 50 genera. One of them, Asimina, is native in temperate North America, and one species (Asimina triloba, known also as papaw but very different from the papaya) occurs as far north as New York and Michigan.

THE CHERIMOYA (Plate VIII)

(Annona Cherimola, Mill.)

Deliciousness itself is the phrase Mark Twain used to characterize the cherimoya. Sir Clements Markham quotes an even more flattering description:

The pineapple, the mangosteen, and the cherimoya, says Dr. Seemann, are considered the finest fruits in the world. I have tasted them in those localities in which they are supposed to attain their highest perfection,—the pineapple in Guayaquil, the mangosteen in the Indian Archipelago, and the cherimoya on the slopes of the Andes,—and if I were called upon to act the part of a Paris I would without hesitation assign the apple to the cherimoya. Its taste, indeed, surpasses that of every other fruit, and Haenke was quite right when he called it the masterpiece of Nature.

The cherimoya is essentially a dessert fruit, and as such it certainly has few equals. Although its native home is close to the equator, it is not strictly tropical as regards its requirements, being, in fact, a subtropical fruit, and attaining perfection only where the climate is cool and relatively dry. At home it grows on plateaux and in mountain valleys where proximity to the equator is offset by elevation, with the result that the climate is as cool as that of regions hundreds of miles to the north or south.

Commercial cultivation of the cherimoya has been undertaken in a few places. This fruit has not, however, achieved the commercial prominence which it merits, and which it seems destined some day to receive.

That it should be unknown in most northern markets, notwithstanding that it grows as readily in many parts of the tropics and subtropics as the avocado, can only be due to the inferiority of the varieties which have been disseminated, to tardiness in utilizing vegetative means of propagation, and to insufficient attention to the cultural requirements of the tree. The best seedling varieties must be brought to light, they must be propagated by budding or grafting, and a careful study made of pollination, pruning, fertilization of the soil, and other cultural details as yet imperfectly understood. There is no reason why, when this has been done, cherimoya culture should not become an important horticultural industry in many regions. Experience in exporting the fruit from Madeira to London, and from Mexico to the United States, has shown that it can be shipped without difficulty. The demand for it in northern markets, once a regular supply is available, is certain to be keen.

The cherimoya is a small, erect or somewhat spreading tree, rarely growing to more than 25 feet high; on poor soils it may not reach more than 15 feet. The young growth is grayish and softly pubescent. The size of the leaves varies in different varieties; in some they are 4 to 6 inches long, in others 10 inches. In California a variety (originally