Monkey-apple
| Pond-apple | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pond-apple foliage | ||||||||||||||
| Plant Info | ||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Annona glabra 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 alligators sometimes eat the fruit.
The tree is native to the West Indies and Florida, and is common in the Everglades. It grows in swamps, 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 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.