Custard apple
Annona reticulata L.
Lục bát (Annona reticulata), also called bullock's heart or ox heart, is a small Annona tree native to Central America; its large heart-shaped fruit turns reddish-brown when ripe, with sweet, creamy, aromatic flesh eaten fresh or blended into drinks.
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Gallery
Custard apple — Fruit (edible product)Custard apple — Tree
Custard apple — Leaves
Custard apple — Flower
Custard apple — Fruit (bullock's heart)
Custard apple — Fruit sections & seeds (botanical plate)Custard apple — Fruit (edible product)Custard apple — TreeLife cycle
From seed to productTree
Small low-branching tree with a rounded crown, 6–10 m tall.
Leaves
Alternate, oblong to lanceolate leaves 10–20 cm long.
Flower
Small flowers in axillary clusters of 2–4, greenish-yellow outer and pale inner petals.
Fruit
Heart-shaped fruit with reticulate skin turning reddish-brown, sweet creamy-white flesh.
Distribution & origin
Share of recorded occurrences by region- Central America & Caribbean (native)25%
- Mexico & northern South America15%
- India & South Asia25%
- Southeast Asia (incl. Vietnam)25%
- Africa & other tropics (introduced)10%
Chemical composition
Relative content in agarwood resin- Water72%
- Sugars15%
- Fibre5%
- Vitamin C & minerals (K, Mg)4%
- Protein & lipids2%
- Acetogenins (annonacin…) & anonaine2%
Uses
- Food: ripe fruit eaten fresh, blended into smoothies, ice cream or jam; sweet and aromatic but usually rated below soursop and sugar apple
- Cultivation: a home-garden fruit tree; can serve as a fairly waterlogging-tolerant rootstock for soursop/sugar apple
- Folk medicine: leaf decoctions for fever and diarrhoea; leaf sap on wounds; crushed seeds against lice (toxic)
- Safety note: seeds, leaves and bark contain anonaine/acetogenins that can be toxic in quantity; never eat the seeds
Properties
- Form
- Small tree
- Product
- Edible fruit (fresh, smoothie, ice cream)
- Hallmark
- Reticulate heart-shaped fruit; glossy black mildly toxic seeds
- Uses
- Food; seeds/leaves in folk use
Habitat & conservation
Bullock's heart prefers a hot, humid tropical climate with a seasonal dry spell and well-drained soil; it grows and is cultivated from lowland up to about 1,000 m, around villages, home gardens and alluvial ground. Native to Central America and the Caribbean; widely introduced and grown in India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia (including southern Vietnam), tropical America and parts of Africa.
Conservation
Not individually assessed by IUCN but widely cultivated across the tropics and not threatened; regarded as Least Concern (LC). Custard-apple family (Annonaceae), genus Annona — the same genus as sugar apple, soursop and pond apple.
References
- 1Plants of the World Online — Annona reticulata L. — Kew Science, 2026
- 2Annona reticulata (Bullock's heart, custard apple) — description, distribution, uses — Wikipedia tiếng Anh, 2026
- 3Lục bát (Annona reticulata) — Wikipedia tiếng Việt — Wikipedia tiếng Việt, 2026
- 4牛心番荔枝 Annona reticulata — 形态、分布与利用 — Wikipedia tiếng Trung, 2026
- 5Nguồn ảnh: Forest and Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0 US); Bhuvankrishna (CC BY-SA 3.0); Sridhar Rao (CC BY-SA 4.0); Yercaud-elango (CC BY-SA 4.0) — Wikimedia Commons,
- 6Nguồn ảnh: Depannemaeker, P. & Nooten, B. H. van (Public domain) — tranh thực vật quả cắt dọc & hạt — Wikimedia Commons,