Annonaceae
How to identify a soursop tree
Annona muricata · also called guanábana (Spanish), graviola (Portuguese), mãng cầu xiêm (Vietnamese)
A large, spiny-skinned fruit with fibrous, tart-sweet white pulp, hugely popular blended into juices and ice cream across the tropics. Leaves are widely used in folk tea preparations.
Field marks
These features are typical of the genus Annona, so they help confirm you are looking at the right group; the fruit and the details below separate the species.
- Leaves are simple and arranged alternately in two flat rows along the twig.
- Flowers usually have thick, fleshy, roughly triangular petals.
- The fruit is an aggregate of many fused segments: knobby in sugar apple, green with soft curved spines in soursop.
Check a photo
Photograph one whole, mature leaf from above, or a flower or fruit, and the identifier will return ranked matches. If soursop is the top result, the field marks above are your second opinion.
Leaves, flowers, fruit, or bark — closer and sharper identifies better. Your photo is identified and discarded, never stored.
Where and when you will find it
- Origin / cultivation history
- Tropical Americas (Caribbean / Central America)
- USDA zones
- 10b-11
- Climate
- Tropical lowland humid — the least frost-hardy of the commonly grown Annona species.
- Fruiting season
- Season not documented; check local sources
- How often grown
- Widely grown
A tree growing well outside the climate above is more likely to be a look-alike.
Growing it: seedling or grafted?
A young tree with no fruit is harder to identify and easy to mislabel, so it helps to know how long it takes to reach fruiting age and how it is usually propagated.
- Years to first fruit
- Seedling 3-5 yrs; grafted 2-3 yrs
- Propagation
- Grafting, seed.
Relatives in the Annonaceae family
Close relatives share many features, so these are the most likely mix-ups.
- CherimoyaAnnona cherimola
- AtemoyaAnnona × atemoya
- Sugar appleAnnona squamosa
- Custard appleAnnona reticulata
- BiribaAnnona mucosa
Map your soursop trees
CanopyTwin keeps every tree on a map with its species, cultivar, photos and history, and counts flowers and fruit from survey photos. It is built for orchards, nurseries and collectors of tropical and rare fruit.
More identification guides: free plant identifier · tropical fruit tree identifier · fruit tree identifier · all species guides