Pond Apple

Overview

A. glabra was introduced from its native tropical America and West Africa as a potential crop and rootstock for commercial Annona species. The edible fruit is often harvested from the wild and used locally, whilst the tree has local medicinal uses and is a source of various materials.

Vernacular Names

Anon de puerco (Spanish), Annone des marais (French), Araticu-do-Brejo (Brazil), Alligatorapfel (German), Zuurzak (Dutch).

Agroecology

A plant of the humid, lowland tropics. The plant can survive occasional, short-lived, very light frosts with temperatures down to 0 °C. Prefers a moist sandy loam and a pH of about 6. This species tolerates wetter conditions than most other members of the genus.

Morphology

• Trunks - usually a single bole, with a swollen base when young or narrowly buttressed when mature. Stems grey with prominent lenticels.
• Leaves - alternate, 7-12 cm long, and up to 6 cm broad, oblong-elliptical, acute or shortly acuminate, light- to dark-green above and paler below, with a prominent midrib and a distinctive small fold where the leaf blade joins the leaf stalk.
• Flowers - short-lived and rarely noticed, 2-3 cm in diameter, pale-yellow to cream with three leathery outer petals and three smaller inner petals, pedicel curved, expanded distally; sepals 4.5 mm long, 9 mm broad, apiculate; outer petals valvate, ovate-cordate, cream-coloured with a crimson spot at base within, 2.5-3.0 cm long, 2.0-2.5 cm broad; inner petals subimbricate, shortly clawed, 2.0-2.5 cm long and 1.5-1.7 cm broad, whitish outside, bright-red to dark-crimson within; stigmas sticky, deciduous.
• Fruits - green turning yellow or orange when ripe, spherical or elongated, 5-15 cm in diameter, looking like a smooth-skinned custard apple, pulp pinkish-orange, rather dry, pungent-aromatic.
• Seeds - light-brown, each 1.5 cm long, 1 cm broad.

Cultivation

• Propagated by seeds - Sow in individual pots, not deeper than 2 cm, at 21 °C. Seeds may be sown directly into the field or in a nursery bed. A germination rate of 60 - 70% can be expected, with the seeds sprouting within 50 - 60 days. Seedlings are ready to plant out 7 - 8 months later.
• By semi-ripe cuttings. 

Chemical Constituents

Acetogenins, ent-kauranes, peptides, and alkaloids (liriodenine alkaloids).

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The leaves and young stems, sometimes combined with the leaves and stems of Passiflora foetida, are boiled to make a tea which is drunk to destroy flatworms and nematodes.
• The bark and the leaves, combined with the bark and leaves of Annona squamosa, are used as a sedative and cardiotonic infusion.