Our future fruiters
Corrossolier
The corolla tree, Annona muricata is a small tree of the family Annonaceae, native to northern South America, grown in the tropics for its edible fruit, called soursop. The term soursop is also used to refer to the tree.
The tree is a shrub or small tree from 3 to 10 m in height.
Leaves, shiny green, are oblong-lanceolate, 10-17 × 2-7 cm, young with ferruginous pubescence below.
The flowers appear on large pedicels (15-20 mm long) opposite to the leaves. The 6 petals are yellow, fleshy and thick. The 3 outer petals are largely oval, with close edges, without overlapping.
It flowers all year round.
The very large fruit is constituted by the meeting of the carpels (a syncarp). It is 15 to 20 cm long, even up to 30 cm long. Dark green in color, it is covered with areoles with a soft curved protrusion. The whitish pulp is edible and contains black, flattened seeds. It is exploited mainly for its edible fruit but also other parts of the plant. It is found in the form of fruit, juice, ice cream, yogurt, jams, tea ...
It tolerates poor soils but does not tolerate low temperatures.
The bath of the leaves is traditionally used to calm the infants. Leaf infusion is used in adults as a sleeping pill and as a sedative. It is also known as stomachic and antispasmodic. In external use, poultices of leaves are applied to burns caused by sunburn.
A high prevalence of atypical parkinsonian syndromes in the Caribbean, however, has been linked to the consumption of infusions of annulus leaves (Annona muricata and Annona squamosa). The seeds and leaves of these plants indeed contain acetogens and alkaloids which could represent the neurotoxic compounds involved in this disease (Caparros-Lefebvre et Coll., 2006).