Annona mucosa (Syn: Rollinia deliciosa) Samen, Schleimapfel, Rahmapfel Biribá

Annona mucosa (Syn: Rollinia deliciosa) seeds

Annona mucosa belongs to the family of the Annonaceae, the sugar apples. The plant is
native to South America. Its scientific name deliciosa means delicious. It has this name
because its fruits taste very good. The fruits are also known as biriba or wild sugar apples.
A. mucosa grows as a tree that can reach a height of 15 to 20 m in nature. In culture it
reaches just 3 to 4 m.
The leaves are dark green, simple and elliptic. They get 20 to 35 cm long. The venation is
clearly visible. The leaves fall down in Europe in the late winter. In the leaf axilla are the
flowers of A. mucosa. They reach 4 cm in diameter and are greenish or yellowish. The
flowers have a really pleasant odor.
The fruit develops from the fruit. The fruit is quite similar to those of other Annonaceae but it
has even more spikes. The spikes are very soft. They give the fruit a quite funny and
extraordinary look. The biriba can weight 1 kg. That’s why the branches sometimes hang
down. The fruit is first green when unripe and gets yellow when it is ripe. It is eatable and
tastes very sweet. The taste is often described as sweet with some flavor of citrus. In Europe
one cannot buy the fruits of A. mucosa. They can be stored just for a little time until they go
bad. That fact makes the transfer to Europe nearly impossible. In its native countries the fruit
is eaten raw out of hand or used to improve some food.
In the white pulp there are the seeds. They are black, big and can be removed easily from the
pulp.

Cultivation
After removing the pulp from the seeds, the seeds can be put 1 cm deep into the substrate. The
seeds do not need any pretreatment. The substrate should be kept moist at a temperature of
about 25°C. Germination occurs after 3 to 6 weeks.
A. mucosa prefers very sunny places. It is tolerant against wet soils. In the tropic it can stand
flooding. But as all tropical plant it is not winter hardy.