View source for Monkey-apple

{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = Pond-apple
| image = Annonaglabra1web.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| image_caption = Pond-apple foliage
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Magnoliales]]
| familia = [[Annonaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Annona]]''
| species = '''''A. glabra'''''
| binomial = ''Annona glabra''
| binomial_authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]
}}

The '''Pond-apple''' (''Annona glabra'') is a tropical fruit tree in the family [[Annonaceae]], in the same genus as the [[Soursop]] and [[Cherimoya]]. It is known by the alternate names '''Alligator-apple''', '''Corkwood''', '''Bobwood''', and '''Monkey-apple'''. The name Alligator-apple derives from the fact that [[alligator]]s sometimes eat the fruit. 

The tree is native to the [[Caribbean|West Indies]] and [[Florida]], and is common in the [[Everglades]]. It grows in [[swamp]]s, is tolerant of salt water, and cannot grow in dry soil. The trees grow to a height of around 10-12 m. They have thin, gray trunks and sometimes grow in clumps. The [[leaf|leaves]] are ovate to oblong with an acute tip, 8-15 cm long and 4-6 cm broad. The [[fruit]] is oblong to spherical and apple-sized or larger, 7-15 cm long and up to 9 cm diameter, and falls when it is green or ripening yellow. It disperses by floating to new locations, and it is food for many animal species. It is edible for humans, and can be made into [[jam]], although the taste is usually not preferable to soursop and other related fruits. The flesh is sweet-scented and agreeable in flavor, but so strongly narcotic that it has never attained general popular use.

It is a very troublesome [[invasive species]] in [[Australia]]. There it grows in estuaries and chokes [[mangrove]] swamps, where its seedlings carpet the banks and prevent other species from germinating or thriving.