Sweetsop (Annona squamosa)

Srikaya or sweetsop (Annona squamosa) is a plant species in the Annonaceae, a small tree or shrub, branched, 3-8 meters high, highly adaptive to soil type and elevation, producing edible fruit with sweet, whitish and watery flesh.

A. squamosa has light brown branches with leaf scars and a bright yellow interior. Twigs turn brown with light brown lenticels.

Leaves are thin, simple, alternate, 5-17 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, rounded base and tapered tip. Pale green on both surfaces. The leaf stalks are 0.4-2.2 cm long and green in color.

Flowers solitary or in short lateral clusters, 2.5 cm long, yellow-green on peduncles 2 cm long. The three outer petals are green, purplish at the base, oval, 1.6-2.5 cm long and 0.6-0.75 cm wide.

The stamens are numerous, white, less than 1.6 cm long and the ovaries are light green. Each pistil forms a separate tubercle, generally 1.3-1.9 cm long and 0.6-1.3 cm wide.

Soft fruit aggregates formed from many carpels, loose and almost free. grow and mature. The fruit is heart-shaped, yellow-green, 5-10 cm in diameter with many rounded protrusions and covered with flour.

The flesh is yellowish-white, edible and sweet-scented. Each carpel contains an oval seed, shiny and smooth, dark brown to black and 1.3-1.6 cm long.

Srikaya requires a tropical or subtropical climate with summer temperatures of 25-41C, moderate drought tolerance, 700 millimeters (28 inches) of annual rainfall and will not produce well during droughts. It grows at elevations of 0-2000 meters and does well in hot dry climates.

The leaves are boiled to treat dysentery and urinary tract infections. The leaves are pounded as a poultice and rubbed on the wound. The leaves were rubbed on the floor and placed in the hens' nests to keep fleas away. The fruit is eaten fresh or processed into juice.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Magnoliales
Family: Annonaceae
Genus: Annona
Species: Annona squamosa

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