Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Annona reticulata; photograph (c) Douglas Caro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Douglas Caro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-14

Annona reticulata L.

Custard apple; Bullock's-heart; Ox-heart

Annonaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +13

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Annona reticulata, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Annona reticulata, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Annona reticulata, photograph (c) Douglas Caro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Annona reticulata, photograph (c) Maria Janeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Annona reticulata, photograph (c) Maria Janeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Annona reticulata, photograph (c) Maria Janeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) 81 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.8°C
Record low 11.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,410mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Annona reticulata is a small deciduous or semi-evergreen tree in the plant family Annonaceae. It is best known for its fruit, called custard apple, a common name shared with fruits of several other species in the same genus: A. cherimola and A. squamosa. Other English common names include ox heart and bullock's heart. The fruit is sweet and useful in preparation of desserts, but is generally less popular for eating than that of A. cherimola.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Annona reticulata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Annona

Annona or Anona is a genus of flowering plants in the pawpaw/sugar apple family, Annonaceae. It is the second largest genus in the family after Guatteria, containing approximately 166 species of mostly Neotropical and Afrotropical trees and shrubs.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Annona", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,067 mm of 1,408 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.9 °C against a yearly mean of 24.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,408 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,067 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 259 mm, driest month March at 27 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,043 mm to 2,807 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,410 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,408 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.8 °C, the absolute minimum 11.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 12.4 °C to 20.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.3 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -345 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Annona reticulata through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.1 °C; 1,408 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°20°30°40°50°41.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–41RH 59–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 220 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 23–2928 / 24–3130 / 26–3331 / 28–3431 / 28–3530 / 27–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3128 / 25–3028 / 24–2927 / 23–29
Night °C18 / 12–2119 / 13–2119 / 14–2221 / 16–2422 / 18–2523 / 18–2522 / 18–2522 / 18–2522 / 18–2421 / 17–2320 / 15–2219 / 13–21
Rain mm39 / 7–9632 / 8–9427 / 4–9637 / 2–17399 / 17–276208 / 153–324215 / 152–366225 / 158–377259 / 184–444160 / 90–35361 / 20–22446 / 7–139
DLI28 / 24–3433 / 29–3837 / 34–4441 / 34–4840 / 35–4736 / 33–3936 / 33–4036 / 33–4032 / 29–3530 / 28–3328 / 25–3327 / 23–32
RH %62 / 54–6761 / 54–6659 / 53–6459 / 51–6561 / 54–6665 / 61–6865 / 60–7066 / 61–7067 / 64–7166 / 62–7064 / 59–6863 / 56–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 220 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (542 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1448:1744 (17.575, -92.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 220 distinct grid cells holding 542 of the 544 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1448:1744 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.50_-92.500, lapse-corrected -345 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 21 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia · introduced: Cape Verde, Guinea, Senegal, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ethiopia, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Christmas I., Solomon Is., Queensland, Nauru, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Surinam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker6.823, -75.861 · in the densest population, 320 records (40% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 801 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 542 of them in the land cells it reads, of 544 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 730 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 273 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 257 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 801 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Annona reticulata, photograph 1did not loadAnnona reticulata, photograph 2did not loadAnnona reticulata, photograph 3did not loadAnnona reticulata, photograph 4did not loadAnnona reticulata, photograph 5did not loadAnnona reticulata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Douglas Caro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Maria Janeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Peperomia angustata Peperomia angustata Piperaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Jalil R.Amphilophium paniculatum Amphilophium paniculatum Liana de cuello Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciCeltis iguanaea Celtis iguanaea Iguana hackberry Photo: CC0, author not statedMaranta arundinacea Maranta arundinacea Arrowroot Photo: CC0, author not statedIpomoea corymbosa Ipomoea corymbosa Convolvulaceae Photo: CC BY, Francisco Farriols SarabiaCombretum fruticosum Combretum fruticosum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

Other Annona 17 in the reference

Annona amazonica Annonaceae Annona cherimola Annona cherimola Cherimoya Photo: CC BY, Viktor Annona cherimolioides Annonaceae Annona coriacea Annona coriacea Annonaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniAnnona crassiflora Annona crassiflora Fleshyflower annona Photo: CC BY-SA, Wallace Carneiro AlmeidaAnnona emarginata Annona emarginata Annonaceae Photo: CC BY, Jens-Christian SvenningAnnona glabra Annona glabra Pond apple Photo: CC0, author not statedAnnona longiflora Annona longiflora Wild cherimoya of Jalisco Photo: CC BY, Viacheslav ShaliskoAnnona macroprophyllata Annona macroprophyllata Ilama Photo: CC BY, Jordi Martínez MartínezAnnona montana Annona montana Mountain soursop Photo: CC0, author not statedAnnona mucosa Annona mucosa Sugar apple Photo: CC BY, Dylan Camacho GuzmanAnnona muricata Annona muricata Soursop Photo: CC BY, Guilherme Siniciato Terra Garbino all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Annona excelsa; Annona laevis; Annona longifolia; Annona lutescens; Annona riparia. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Annona micrantha: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Annonaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +12
Wild records
801 in range · 730 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.50_-92.500, lapse-corrected -345 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 115 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…