Annona muricata - Sour Sop
Family:
Native to:
Habitat:
Annonaceae
Tropical Americas: Mexico to Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, French Guyana, the Caribbean.
Wet, primary and secondary rainforest. 100-2000 meters above sea level. 7 meter tall tree.
Ecological value:
Attracts insects such as flies, beetles and other pollinators. Fast growing,
tolerant to drought. Starts fruiting around 2 years of age. At 5 years can produce 10-50 fruits per year dependent on soil nutrients and pollination. Prefers full sun and rich, deep loamy soil.
Material uses:
Wood, soft and light, not durable. Rarely used for construction. Used for ox yokes. The wood can also be burned for fuel.
Edible uses:
Fruit, raw or cooked. Ripe fruit has a sweet apple-strawberry combo. Young fruit
cooked as a vegetable. Leaves are picked to produce a tea called Corossol.
Medicinal use:
Used to treat a variety of ailments: seed to treat convulsions; bark to treat diarrhea and dysentery; has antimalarial properties, is anti-parasitic, antibacterial, a cardiac depressant etc etc.
Other details:
Suitable for intercropping between larger fruit trees. Powder from leaves and sap as poison. Powder or oil from seeds to kill lice and bedbugs. Fruit can be used as bait to attract and catch fish. Annona muricata fruit are characterized by their spiky appearance.
Research:
Alex Anez Folla/Christine Facella
Sources:
“Annona Muricata L. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science.” n.d. Plants of the World Online. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:14308-2/general-information.
“Annona Muricata - Useful Tropical Plants.” n.d. Tropical.theferns.info. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Annona+muricata.
Facciola. S., ‘Cornucopia II’, Kampong Publications, California, 1998
Image source: Fpalli