Plant · P-502

Cherimoya

Annona cherimola

Cherimoya is an Andean highland fruit tree grown for a sweet, fragrant pulp with a custard-like texture, eaten raw with a spoon or worked into ice cream and cakes, and often described as tasting like a cross between banana and pineapple. Its flowers open male, then female, hours apart, so most growers hand-pollinate to get a full crop. The seeds are dangerous, not just inedible - crushed seed juice can cause blindness if it reaches the eye. It wants mild, dry-summer air rather than heat: prolonged humidity or hot, dry wind stunts it even where winter cold would be no problem.