Annona cherimola

The cherimoya (Annona cherimola), also spelled chirimoya and called chirimuya by the Inca people, is an edible fruit-bearing species of the genus Annona from the family Annonaceae. It is generally thought to be native to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru , Bolivia and Chile, spreading through cultivation to the Andes and Central America. Cherimoya is grown in tropical regions throughout the world. It is in the same genus, Annona, as soursop. Mark Twain called the cherimoya 'the most delicious fruit known to men'. The creamy texture of the flesh gives the fruit its secondary name, custard apple. The name originates from the Quechua word chirimuya, which means 'cold seeds', because the plant grows at high altitudes and the seeds will germinate at higher altitudes. In Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, the fruit is commonly known as chirimoya (spelled accordingly to the Spanish language). Annona cherimola is a fairly dense, fast-growing, woody, briefly deciduous but mostly evergreen low branched, spreading tree or shrub 5 metres (16 ft) to 9 metres (30 ft) tall. Mature branches are sappy and woody. Young branches and twigs have a matting of short, fine, rust colored hairs. The leathery leaves are 5–25 centimetres (2.0–9.8 in) long 3–10 centimetres (1.2–3.9 in) wide and mostly elliptic, pointed at the ends and rounded near the leaf stalk. When young, they are covered with soft, fine, tangled, rust colored hairs. When mature, the leaves bear hairs only along the veins on the undersurface. Tops are hairless and a dull medium green with paler veins, backs velvety, dull grey-green with raised pale green veins. New leaves are whitish below. Leaves are single and alternate, dark green and slightly hairy on the top surface. They attach to branches with stout 6–10 millimetres (0.24–0.39 in) long and densely hairy leaf stalks. Cherimoya trees bear very pale green, fleshy flowers. They are 3 centimetres (1.2 in) long, with very strong fruity odor. Each flower has three outer, greenish, fleshy, oblong, downy petals and three smaller, pinkish inner petals with yellow or brown finely matted hairs outside, whitish with purple spot and many stamens on the inside. Flowers appear on the branches opposite to the leaves, solitary or in pairs or groups of three, on flower stalks that are covered densely with fine rust colored hairs, 8–12 millimetres (0.31–0.47 in) long. Buds are 15–18 millimetres (0.59–0.71 in) long, 5–8 millimetres (0.20–0.31 in) wide at the base. The pollen is shed as permanent tetrads.