The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Pond apple

Annona glabra, Annonaceae, the custard-apple family

The pond apple is a tree of tropical wetlands4. It grows wild in the Florida Everglades and in coastal swamps and marshes through the Bahamas and the West Indies, southern Mexico and Central America, south to Peru and Argentina, and on the coast of West Tropical Africa3; Kew gives its native range as tropical and subtropical America and western and west-central Africa2. Morton lists alligator apple, monkey apple and custard apple among its other names3.

Its fruit is oval or heart-shaped, up to 12.5 cm long, with a glossy yellow skin and salmon-coloured, dryish pulp; when fully ripe it is edible, and has been made into jelly or wine3. Fishermen make floats of its light, cork-like wood, and its seeds float on water3.

In Australia it is a weed5. Pond apple was brought there in 1912 as grafting stock for commercial custard apples, and now forms dense stands that can replace native ecosystems in the wetlands of Queensland’s Wet Tropics5. Its fruit and seed stay viable for many months in fresh or salt water, and are spread by water and by feral pigs, wallabies and cassowaries5.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Annona glabra, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Annona glabra, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "Trop. & Subtrop. America, W. & WC. Trop. Africa".
  3. Wild Custard Apple and Related Species, in Fruits of Warm Climates, Julia F. Morton, Purdue University NewCROP, 1987. Supports: the names alligator apple, monkey apple and custard apple; the wild range from the Everglades and the West Indies to Peru and Argentina, and the coast of West Tropical Africa; the fruit and its uses; cork-like wood for floats; seeds that float.
  4. pond apple, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: a tree of tropical wetlands of the Americas with ovoid yellow-green fruit.
  5. Pond apple, Business Queensland, Queensland Government. Supports: introduction to Australia in 1912 as grafting stock for custard apples; dense stands in Queensland's Wet Tropics; fruit and seed floating and viable for months in fresh to saline water; spread by water, feral pigs, wallabies and cassowaries.