Cherimoya

Annona cherimola

Annonaceae

An Andean custard apple — spoon the ripe white flesh, spit every black seed, and leave the leaf off the kettle.

Ripe flesh is food. Seeds and leaves are not a tea — they are a traditional insect story, not a dessert. Custard apple cousins share the caution.

Parts used: Ripe flesh
Traditional notes: Kitchen fruit · Traditional Andean dessert
Grow · USDA 6b: Subtropical highland tree, USDA 9–11. Hates hard frost and extreme heat equally. A named graft. Hand-pollinate if fruit set is shy (a paintbrush at dusk). In work: Jan · Feb · Mar · Oct · Nov · Dec
Harvest: When it just yields. Ripen on the counter if mature-hard.

Highland, not jungle. It likes a cool night.
A black speckle on the skin can still be fine; a black mush is not.

Safety

Seeds chewed or crushed Leaf as tea Known Annona allergy

Lore

Quechua chirimuya, cold seeds — the highlands. Spanish took it to the Mediterranean. Mark Twain said it was the most delicious fruit known; he had not been forced to eat a shipped, underripe one. Atemoya is a hybrid with sugar apple. Soursop (guanabana) is a hotter-climate cousin with its own leaf folklore, not this plate.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.