| Binomial |
Annona muricata L. |
| Family |
Annonaceae |
| Tamil Name |
முள்ளு சீத்தா (Mullu Seetha) |
| Habit |
Small, low-branching, slender, evergreen fruit tree. The leaves have an offensive
smell. |
| Bark |
Smooth, dull grey or grey-brown, rough |
| Flowers |
Flowers may appear anywhere on the trunk, branches or twigs and is borne singly. Flowers are plump, in a triangle-conical shape, trimerous, with 3 yellow green slightly spreading fleshy petals as the outer layer and 3 pale yellow close-set petals as the inner petals. |
| Fruits |
Ripe fruit is dark green, covered with soft, short spine and is pseudocarp, broadly ovoid or ellipsoid. The fruits is considered as mature when their spines are far apart and the shiny green colour becomes dull-green or yellowish-green. |
| Flowering Period
|
Throughout the year |
| Pollinators |
Insects (Bee, Ant, Beetle, Thrip, Wasp) |
| Native to South American Countries. |
Annona muricata is widely known as Soursop due to the sour and sweet taste of its fruit. It is also known as prickly custard apple due to its taste. Different parts of the plant especially the leaves have been used for various ethno medicinal purposes by traditional healers to treat several diseases including cancer, inflammation, diabetes, liver diseases, and abscesses. The fruit is used as natural medicine for arthritic pain, neuralgia, arthritis, diarrhoea, dysentery, fever, malaria, parasites, rheumatism, skin rushes and worms, and it is also eaten to elevate a
mother’s milk after childbirth.
Endemic to the warmest areas of the tropics of South and Central America and the Caribbean. It is now widely found in tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, Western Africa, and Southeast Asia. |
| Location on campus: |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iwRzWD9js91dvfoAA
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