Annona L.

Trees or shrubs. Flowers bisexual, axillary, leaf-opposed or terminal, solitary or fascicled. Sepals 3, small, valvate. Petals 6 (3 + 3), valvate, coriaceous; outer ones lanceolate or ovate, concave at base, fleshy; inner ones rudimentary or absent. Stamens numerous; anthers narrow, dorsal, ovoid at top of the connectives. Carpels many, subconnate; ovule 1, erect, basal; style oblong. Ripe carpels confluent into a many- loculed ovoid or globose fruit, sometimes with spines. Seeds many, enclosed by a membranous aril.

India, Africa, Central America, S. America and West Indies; ca 110 species, 5 species in India. Widely cultivated throughout the tropics.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Petals 6, the inner 3 conspicuous

2

b. Petals 3, inner rudimentary or absent

3

2a. Fruits smooth

2. Annona glabra

b. Fruits muricate

3. Annona muricata

3a. Leaves elliptic, velvety outside; fruits smooth

1. Annona cherimola

b. Leaves oblong or lanceolate, almost glabrous; fruits not smooth

4

4a. Leaves acuminate; fruits reticulate, areolate

7. Annona reticulata

b. Leaves obtuse; fruits tuberculate

5. Annona squamosa

List of Lower Taxa