TopTropicals Plant Catalog

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This plant is a medium sized tree that grows up to 40ft.This plant is known to posses some medicinal properties. All parts of this tree including, the roots, leaves, trunk, fruits, and seeds, are used for curing one human ailment, or another. The fruits are usually eaten by people.They taste like marmalade, and smell like roses. They are also used in the preparation of many medicines in villages. These protein-rich fruits are also used in making some very good drinks. They can also make a wonderful jam. The plant easily withstands long periods of drought, which are needed for better fruit yields. It grows in most soil and climate types, and requires little care when established.

Perhaps the most beautiful of flowering tropical trees, certainly attractive enough to earn the sobriquet Queen of Flowering Trees. Obscure origins add to the mystique of this noble petite tree. It has only been collected from the wild a couple of times, in the forests of Burma, leading to its common name Pride of Burma. The tree has compound leaves and a great profusion of large, irregular, yellow-spotted scarlet flowers. The genus is named after Lady Sarah Amherst, who collected plants in Asia in the early Nineteenth century. Not only is she commemorated in one of the most beautiful of the worlds trees, she also lends her name to Lady Amherst pheasant one of the most elegant birds. The new leaves are produced in flaccid pale tassels that turn purplish before they green and open out. When not in flower, Amherstia looks similar to Saracca, another Asian legume genus. The leaves unfurl in handkerchief fashion like the Brownea and Maniltoa. New leaf growth is reddish, hangs down at first.

The actual fruit is the nut, the apple is a swollen stem. Cashew apple is eaten fresh or stewed. Has a sweet-astringent taste. Nut itself is caustic until roasted. Must be roasted outdoors because fumes are irritating. Very fast growing under favorable conditions, it may fruit in container, within 2 years from seed. Tolerates very poor soil and drought, as well as salty wind. Very cold sensitive.

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It is a rare Anonna. Large fruit, sometimes over 6" long, having similarities in both shape and size to the Annona cherimola. The rind tends to be either green or pink-purple, with white or pinkish flesh respectively. Some varieties have deep red flesh. Flavor is said to be excellent in many varieties, rivaling that of the cherimoya and sugar apple. Ilama is the most cold sensitive of all the Annonas, even more so than Annona cherimola. Typically fruits mature from July to December. The fruit is almost always eaten raw, out of hand. It grows best in climates having a dry season, followed by heavy rainfall. Ilama fruits perish within days of harvest and the fruit transports very poorly, hence its relative obscurity to much of the world.

Season: All year, best during warm months. Origin: Tropical America. One of the most delicious annona. Fruit is sweet with slight sour addition, flavor is the best. Sweet & tart custard-like pulp. Extremely cold sensitive, minimum temperature 50F. Makes a superb milkshake, but can be eaten fresh as well. The tree is medium sized, very fast growing. Can be kept in a pot.

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