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Netted Custard Apple
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Netted Custard Apple
ntroduced Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Netted Custard Apple, Bullock's heart, Bull's heart • Hindi: रामफल Ramphal • Manipuri: ꯁꯤꯇꯥꯄꯍꯜ Sitaphal • Marathi: रामफल Ramphal • Tamil: Ramachita • Malayalam: Manilanilam • Kannada: ರಾಮಫಲ Ramphal • Bengali: নোনা Nona • Oriya: Ramopholo • Konkani: अनोन Anon • Gujarati: રામફલ Ramphal • Sanskrit: लवणी Lavani, कृष्णबीज Krishnabija • Marathi: रामफळ Raamphal • Mizo: Thei-chhung-phut
Botanical name: Annona reticulata    Family: Annonaceae (Sugar-apple family)
Synonyms: Annona humboldtiana, Annona humboldtii

Netted Custard Apple is a fruit which is a close cousin of Sugar Apple. The tree that bears these fruits is a small deciduous or semi-evergreen tree sometimes reaching 10 metres tall and a native of Central America. The ill-smelling leaves are deciduous, alternate, oblong or narrow-lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, with conspicuous veins. Flowers, in drooping clusters, are fragrant, slender, with 3 outer fleshy, narrow petals 2-3 cm long, light-green externally and pale-yellow with a dark-red or purple spot on the inside at the base. The flowers never fully open. The compound fruit, 8-16 cm in diameter, may be symmetrically heart-shaped, lopsided, or irregular; or nearly round, or oblate, with a deep or shallow depression at the base. The skin, thin but tough, may be yellow or brownish when ripe, with a pink, reddish or brownish-red blush, and faintly, moderately, or distinctly netted.

Identification credit: Prashant Awale Photographed in Maharashtra.

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