Lucia Ashta Popular Books

Lucia Ashta Biography & Facts

Annona squamosa is a small, well-branched tree or shrub from the family Annonaceae that bears edible fruits called sugar apples or sweetsops. It tolerates a tropical lowland climate better than its relatives Annona reticulata and Annona cherimola (whose fruits often share the same name) helping make it the most widely cultivated of these species. Annona squamosa is a small, semi-(or late) deciduous, much-branched shrub or small tree 3 to 8 metres (10 to 26 feet) tall similar to soursop (Annona muricata). It is a native of tropical climate in the Americas and West Indies, and Spanish traders aboard the Manila galleons docking in the Philippines brought it to Asia. The fruit is spherical-conical, 5–10 centimetres (2–4 inches) in diameter and 6–10 cm (2+1⁄4–4 in) long, and weighing 100–240 grams (3.5–8.5 ounces), with a thick rind composed of knobby segments. The colour is typically pale green through blue-green, with a deep pink blush in certain varieties, and typically has a bloom. It is unique among Annona fruits in being segmented; the segments tend to separate when ripe, exposing the innards. The flesh is fragrant and sweet, creamy white through light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. The seeds are coated with the flesh, It is found adhering to 13-to-16-millimetre-long (1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in) seeds forming individual segments arranged in a single layer around a conical core. It is soft, slightly grainy, and slippery. The hard, shiny seeds may number 20–40 or more per fruit and have a brown to black coat, although varieties exist that are almost seedless. The seeds can be ground for use as an insecticide.The stems run through the centre of the fruit connecting it to the outside. The skin is shaped like a Reuleaux triangle coloured green and rough in texture. Due to the soft flesh and structure of the sugar apple it is very fragile to pressure when ripe. New varieties are also being developed in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The atemoya or "pineapple sugar-apple", a hybrid between the sugar-apple and the cherimoya, is popular in Taiwan, although it was first developed in the United States in 1908. The fruit is similar in sweetness to the sugar-apple, but has a very different taste. As its name suggests, it tastes like pineapple. Description The fruit of A. squamosa (sugar-apple) has sweet whitish pulp, and is popular in tropical markets. Stems and leaves Branches with light brown bark and visible leaf scars; inner bark light yellow and slightly bitter; twigs become brown with light brown dots (lenticels – small, oval, rounded spots upon the stem or branch of a plant, from which the underlying tissues may protrude or roots may issue). Thin, simple, alternate leaves occur singly, 5 to 17 centimetres (2 to 6+3⁄4 inches) long and 2 to 6 cm (3⁄4 to 2+3⁄8 in) wide; rounded at the base and pointed at the tip (oblong-lanceolate). They are pale green on both surfaces and mostly hairless with slight hairs on the underside when young. The sides sometimes are slightly unequal and the leaf edges are without teeth, inconspicuously hairy when young. The leaf stalks are 0.4 to 2.2 cm (1⁄8 to 7⁄8 in) long, green, and sparsely pubescent. Flowers Solitary or in short lateral clusters of 2–4 about 2.5 cm (1 in) long, greenish-yellow flowers on a hairy, slender 2 cm (3⁄4 in) long stalk. Three green outer petals, purplish at the base, oblong, 1.6 to 2.5 cm (5⁄8 to 1 in) long, and 0.6 to 0.75 cm (1⁄4 to 5⁄16 in) wide, three inner petals reduced to minute scales or absent. Very numerous stamens; crowded, white, less than 1.6 cm (5⁄8 in) long; ovary light green. Styles white, crowded on the raised axis. Each pistil forms a separate tubercle (small rounded wartlike protuberance), mostly 1.3 to 1.9 cm (1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in) long and 0.6 to 1.3 cm (1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in) wide which matures into the aggregate fruit. Flowering occurs in spring-early summer and flowers are pollinated by nitidulid beetles. Its pollen is shed as permanent tetrads. Fruits and reproduction Fruits ripen 3 to 4 months after flowering. Aggregate and soft fruits form from the numerous and loosely united pistils of a flower which become enlarged and mature into fruits which are distinct from fruits of other species of genus (and more like a giant raspberry instead). The round or heart-shaped greenish yellow, ripened aggregate fruit is pendulous on a thickened stalk; 5 to 10 cm (2 to 3+7⁄8 in) in diameter with many round protuberances and covered with a powdery bloom. Fruits are formed of loosely cohering or almost free carpels (the ripened pistels). The pulp is white tinged yellow, edible and sweetly aromatic. Each carpel containing an oblong, shiny and smooth, dark brown to black, 1.3 to 1.6 cm (1⁄2 to 5⁄8 in) long seed. Nutrition and uses Sugar-apple is high in energy, an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese, a good source of thiamine and vitamin B6, and provides vitamin B2, B3 B5, B9, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium in fair quantities. Chemistry The diterpenoid alkaloid atisine is the most abundant alkaloid in the root. Other constituents of Annona squamosa include the alkaloids oxophoebine, reticuline, isocorydine, and methylcorydaldine, and the flavonoid quercetin-3-O-glucoside. Bayer AG has patented the extraction process and molecular identity of the annonaceous acetogenin annonin, as well as its use as a biopesticide. Other acetogenins have been isolated from the seeds, bark, and leaves. Distribution and habitat Annona squamosa is native to the tropical Americas and West Indies, but the exact origin is unknown. It is now the most widely cultivated of all the species of Annona, being grown for its fruit throughout the tropics and warmer subtropics, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and China as far north as Suzhou; it was introduced to southern Asia before 1590. It is naturalized as far north as southern Florida in the United States and as south as Bahia in Brazil, Bangladesh, and is an invasive species in some areas. Native Neotropic Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands. Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama Northern South America: Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela Western South America: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru Southern South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay Naturalised Pacific: Samoa, Tonga North America: Mexico, Belize Afrotropic: Angola, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zanzibar, Kenya Australasia: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands Indomalaya: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam Palearctic: Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Malta, Israel Climate an.... Discover the Lucia Ashta popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Lucia Ashta books.