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Annona purpurea
Annonaceae FAMILY Least Concern

Annona purpurea

Annona purpurea

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitDeciduous Tree
Growth—

A plant of the hot, lowland tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,200 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 22 - 30°c, but can tolerate 17 - 35°c[1]. Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -1°c or lower, but new growth will be badly damaged at 0°c[1]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,000 - 3,000mm, but tolerates 700 - 5,000mm[1]. Grows best in a sunny position[1]. Prefers a moist, moderately fertile, sandy loam[2, 3]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7[1].

Propagation

The seed of many species in this genus has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing[PFAF]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-19. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Annona+purpurea>

Pollinators

Beetles, Insects

References

  1. [1]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  2. [2]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  3. [3]World Agroforesty Centre — http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ ↩︎An excellent online database of a huge range of trees giving very good information on each plant - its uses, ecology, identity, propagation, pests etc.
  4. [4]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
  5. [5]Flora of Guatemala — Standley P.C. & J. A. Steyermark · 1946 - 1976 · http://www.archive.org/ ↩︎A superb reference, though somewhat dated. Gives lots of plant uses as well as information on plant habit and habitat. The entire flora (13 volumes) can now be downloaded from http://www.archive.org/
  6. [6]Contributions from the United States National Herbarium Vol. 18 — Smithsonian Institute; Washington. · 1917 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎Includes a treatment of the Annona. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
  7. [7]Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants — http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 ↩︎Terse details of a huge range of useful plants.
  8. [8]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  9. [9]Dictionary of Trees; Volume 2 South America; Nomenclature, Taxonomy and Ecology — Grandtner M.M. & Chevrette J. · Academic Press; London · 2014 · ISBN 978-0-12-396490-8 ↩︎
  10. [10]IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — http://www.iucnredlist.org/ ↩︎A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat.
  11. [11]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  12. [12]Enciclopedia de las Plantas Útiles del Ecuador — de la Torre, L., Navarrete H., P. Muriel M., Macía M.J. & Ba · Herbario QCA de la Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas de la Pontific · 2008 · ISBN 978-9978-77-135-8 ↩︎
  13. [13]Perennial Edible Fruits of the Tropics : an Inventory — Martin, F. W.; Campbell, C. W.; Rubertbe, R. M. · U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service · 1987 ↩︎A booklet giving terse details of almost 300 species of edible fruits, plus regional lists of Botanical and Common names for over 2,500 less well-known edible fruits of the tropics.
  14. [14]Trade Winds Fruit — http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/index.htm ↩︎The on-line catalogue of a company selling seeds. Gives descriptions, photos and uses of a very wide range of fruit and other food-producing plants plus ornamentals.
  15. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎