Annona Species Monograph.pdf - Crops for the Future

Chapter 3. Origin and Distribution
be a native fruit of that country (León, 1987). However, this is a secondary
centre of diversity, created during the last 500 years. Some of the arguments
used by those who favour an Asiatic origin for this species include: the
occurrence of common names for it in Sanskrit; the existence of large,
apparently wild populations in several parts of India; and the presence of
carvings and wall-paintings, maybe representing the fruit, in the ruins of
ancient Muttra and Ajanta temples (Popenoe, 1974 a). In Asia, it grows not
only in India, but also in south China, where it is known as fan-li-chi, or
foreign lichi.
Safford, cited by Popenoe (1974 a), suspected that the name "ata" is not of
American origin. He said that it may be from the Malayan name "atis",
meaning heart, and that it was carried to Mexico from the Philippines in early
colonial days. Coronel (1994) cites the vernacular name "atis" in the
Philippines.
In Cuba, the sugar apple ranks with mango as one of the favourite fruits and
it is common in other islands of the West Indies. In the USA, it grows
successfully in southern Florida but has never been grown to fruiting size in
California (Popenoe, 1974 a).
Sugar apple and cherimoya have been hybridized and produced a new fruit
called atemoya. The crosses were made by P.J. Webster in 1907 in Florida,
for the USDA. However, crossing occurred naturally in the field in Australia
in 1850 and again in Palestine in 1930 (NRC, 1989). The hybrid is in
commercial production in Australia (where it is confusingly called custard
apple), as well as the USA, Israel, South Africa, the Philippines and
numerous parts of Central and South America. This hybrid is preferred
because there appear to be no pollination difficulties. Nonetheless, major
selection programmes from diverse seedling progenies have not been
vigorously pursued in any major production area.
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