Annoonat – Annona

Leaves are simple, alternate, oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, leathery, glabrous to pubescent, 6-20 cm long, with entire margins and no stipules. Flowers are fragrant, bisexual, borne singly or several together. Sepals are 3, up to 0.5 cm wide, smaller than petals. Petals are 6 in two whorls. Three outer petals are large and fleshy, three inner ones are distinctly smaller or absent. Very numerous stamens are crowded in whorls below or around the ovaries, all fused with the receptacle. Fruits are 8-35 cm long fleshy syncarps formed by the fusion of the pistils and receptacle, ovoid to nearly globose or hear-shaped, surface variable depending on species (nearly smooth, scaly or with soft spines). Seeds are numerous, brown or black, oblong or oval, compressed, glossy, 1-2 cm long, embedded in the whitish fruit pulp.