Ilama (fruit)

Last updated

Ilama
Annona diversifolia.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Magnoliales
Family: Annonaceae
Genus: Annona
Species:
A. macroprophyllata
Binomial name
Annona macroprophyllata
Synonyms
  • Annona diversifolia Saff.

The ilama or ilama tree (Annona macroprophyllata) [1] is a tropical fruit tree found in Central America. The name is derived from the Nahuatl ilamatzapotl, of which the rough translation is "old woman's sapote ". The name is also applied to a similar fruit, soncoya or cabeza de negro ( Annona purpurea ).

Contents

The ilama fruit is eaten halved, by scooping the flesh out of the rind, and usually chilled when served. It is sometimes served with cream and sugar to intensify the flavor, or with a drop of lime or lemon juice to highlight a tart and bitter note.

The ilama is sometimes termed the cherimoya of the lowlands. [2]

Fruit

IlamaSTB 6438.jpg

The ilama has a compound fruit, which is either cone-shaped, heart-shaped, or ovular. Resembling the cherimoya, it is about six inches (15 cm) long and may weigh as much as two pounds (910 g). Generally, the ilama is covered with more-or-less pronounced, triangular lobules, though some fruits on the same tree may vary from bumpy to fairly smooth.

There are two types of ilama, green and pink. The green type has a flesh that is white and sweet, while the pink type has rosy-colored flesh with a tart taste.

The rind, or skin, of the ilama varies from a pale-green color to a deep-pink or purplish color, coated with a thick layer of velvety, gray-white bloom. It is about 1/4 inch thick (6 mm), leathery, fairly soft, with a grainy surface. The flesh towards the fruit's center is somewhat fibrous, but smooth and custardy near the rind. The flesh varies from being dryish to being fairly juicy, and contains 25 to 80 hard, smooth, brown, cylindrical seeds, about 34 inch (1.9 cm) long, and 38 inch (0.95 cm) wide. Each seed is enclosed in a close-fitting membrane that, when split, allows the seed to slip out

Tree

The tree which produces the ilama stands erect at about 25 feet (7.6 m), often branching at ground level. It is distinguished by its aromatic, pale-brownish-grey, furrowed bark and glossy, thin, elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate leaves, two to six inches (5.1 to 15.2 cm) long. Clasping the base of the flowering branchlets are one or two leaf-like, nearly circular, glabrous bracts, about 1 to 1+38 inches (2.5 to 3.5 cm) in length. New growth is tinged a reddish or coppery color. The solitary flowers have three minutely hairy, long and narrow petals, maroon in color, with small, rusty, hairy sepals, and stamen-like, pollen-bearing inner petals.

Cultivation

Fruit harvest of the ilama tree occurs in late June in Mexico, and only lasts about two weeks. In Guatemala, the harvest season extends from late July to September, and from July to December where the ilama is cultivated in Florida.

According to tradition, the fruits are not to be picked until cracking occurs, but they can be picked a little earlier and held up to three days for softening to take place. If the ilama is picked too early, it will never ripen. The yield of the ilama is typically low. During the normal fruiting period, some trees will have no fruits; others only three to 10, while exceptional trees may bear as many as 85 to 100 fruits per season.

History

Francisco Hernandez was one of the first people to document the ilama. He was sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1570 to take note of the useful products of Mexico. For many years, people confused it with the soursop or the custard apple.

The ilama is native and grows wild in the foothills of the southwest coast of Mexico and of the Pacific coast of Guatemala and El Salvador. It is strictly a tropical plant. It does not grow naturally higher than 2,000 feet (610 m) in Mexico; although in El Salvador it is cultivated at 5,000 feet (1,500 m), and in Guatemala, it is cultivated up to 5,900 feet (1,800 m). The ilama survives best in climates where there is a long dry season followed by plentiful rainfall. [3] The tree is irrigated in areas where rainfall does not fall periodically.

Nutrition

According to analyses made in El Salvador, the food value per 100 g of edible portion of the fruit is as follows:

Trivia

The ilama fruit was used as a plot device in the 1997 Malayalam film Guru , [4] [5] directed by Rajeev Anchal. This was India's official entry to the 1997 Academy Award, to be considered for nomination for the Best Foreign Film. [6]

Unlike its portrayal in the film, eating ilama fruit does not cause blindness, nor does the seed cure one of blindness.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamarind</span> Leguminous tree bearing edible fruit

Tamarind is a leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is indigenous to tropical Africa and naturalized in Asia. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs to the family Fabaceae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackfruit</span> Tree in the Moracae family

The jackfruit is the fruit of jack treeArtocarpus heterophyllus, a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as 55 kg in weight, 90 cm in length, and 50 cm in diameter. A mature jackfruit tree produces some 200 fruits per year, with older trees bearing up to 500 fruits in a year. The jackfruit is a multiple fruit composed of hundreds to thousands of individual flowers, and the fleshy petals of the unripe fruit are eaten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomelo</span> Citrus fruit from Southeast Asia

The pomelo, from the family Rutaceae, is the largest citrus fruit, and the principal ancestor of the grapefruit. It is a natural, non-hybrid, citrus fruit, native to Southeast Asia. Similar in taste to a sweet grapefruit, the pomelo is commonly consumed and used for festive occasions throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia. As with the grapefruit, phytochemicals in the pomelo have the potential for drug interactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soursop</span> Species of plant

Soursop is the fruit of Annona muricata, a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and the Caribbean and is widely propagated. It is in the same genus, Annona, as cherimoya and is in the Annonaceae family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherimoya</span> Edible fruit-bearing species of the genus Annona

The cherimoya, also spelled chirimoya and called chirimuya by the Inca people, is a species of edible fruit-bearing plant in the genus Annona, from the family Annonaceae, which includes the closely related sweetsop and soursop. The plant has long been believed to be native to Ecuador and Peru, with cultivation practised in the Andes and Central America, although a recent hypothesis postulates Central America as the origin instead, because many of the plant's wild relatives occur in this area.

<i>Mammea americana</i> Species of tree

Mammea americana, commonly known as mammee, mammee apple, mamey, mamey apple, Santo Domingo apricot, tropical apricot, or South American apricot, is an evergreen tree of the family Calophyllaceae, whose fruit is edible. It has also been classified as belonging to the family Guttiferae Juss. (1789), which would make it a relative of the mangosteen.

<i>Carissa</i> Genus of plants

Carissa is a genus of shrubs or small trees native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and Asia. Until recently about 100 species were listed, but most of them have been relegated to the status of synonyms or assigned to other genera, such as Acokanthera.

<i>Annona squamosa</i> Species of tree

Annona squamosa is a small, well-branched tree or shrub from the family Annonaceae that bears edible fruits called sugar apples or sweetsops. It tolerates a tropical lowland climate better than its relatives Annona reticulata and Annona cherimola helping make it the most widely cultivated of these species. Annona squamosa is a small, semi-(or late) deciduous, much-branched shrub or small tree 3 to 8 metres tall similar to soursop. It is a native of tropical climate in the Americas and West Indies, and Spanish traders aboard the Manila galleons docking in the Philippines brought it to Asia.

<i>Pouteria campechiana</i> Species of plant

Pouteria campechiana is an evergreen tree native to, and cultivated in, southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. It is cultivated in other countries, such as India, Costa Rica, Brazil, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and the Philippines. The edible part of the tree is its fruit, which is colloquially known as an egg fruit.

<i>Couroupita guianensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Couroupita guianensis, known by a variety of common names including cannonball tree, is a deciduous tree in the flowering plant family Lecythidaceae. It is native to the tropical forests of Central and South America, and it is cultivated in many other tropical areas throughout the world because of its beautiful, fragrant flowers and large, interesting fruits. Fruits are brownish grey. There are potential medicinal uses for many parts of Couroupita guianensis, and the tree has cultural and religious significance in India. In Sri Lanka, the cannonball tree has been widely misidentified as Sal, after its introduction to the island by the British in 1881, and has been included as a common item in Buddhist temples as a result.

<i>Annona glabra</i> Tropical fruit tree

Annona glabra is a tropical fruit tree in the family Annonaceae, in the same genus as the soursop and cherimoya. Common names include pond apple, alligator apple, swamp apple, corkwood, bobwood, and monkey apple. The tree is native to Florida in the United States, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and West Africa. It is common in the Everglades. The A. glabra tree is considered an invasive species in Sri Lanka and Australia. It grows in swamps, is tolerant of saltwater, and cannot grow in dry soil.

<i>Artocarpus odoratissimus</i> Species of plant in the family Moraceae

Artocarpus odoratissimus is a species of flowering plant in the Moraceae family. It is a commonly called marang, madang, timadang, terap, tarap, kiran, green pedalai, or johey oak. It is native to Borneo, Palawan, and Mindanao Island, and is closely related to the jackfruit, cempedak, and breadfruit trees which all belong to the same genus, Artocarpus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitaya</span> Fruit of several cactus species

A pitaya or pitahaya is the fruit of several different cactus species indigenous to the region of southern Mexico and along the Pacific coasts of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Pitaya is cultivated in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the United States, the Caribbean, Australia, Brazil, and throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atemoya</span> Species of fruit and plant

The atemoya, Annona × atemoya, or Annona squamosa × Annona cherimola is a hybrid of two fruits – the sugar-apple and the cherimoya – which are both native to the American tropics. This fruit is popular in Taiwan, where it is known as the "pineapple sugar apple" (鳳梨釋迦), so it is sometimes wrongly believed to be a cross between the sugar-apple and the pineapple. In Cuba it is known as anón, and in Venezuela chirimorinon. In Lebanon, the fruit is called achta. In Tanzania it is called stafeli dogo. In Brazil, the atemoya became popular and in 2011, around 1,200 hectares of atemoia were cultivated in Brazil. In Taiwan, the cultivating area of atemoya was 2,856.46 hectares in 2020, and Taitung County was the major place of cultivating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watermelon</span> Large gourd fruit with a smooth hard rind

Watermelon is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varieties.

<i>Pouteria viridis</i> Species of flowering plant

Pouteria viridis is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapotaceae known by the common name green sapote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kobayashi mikan</span> Hybrid Species of fruit and plant

Kobayashi mikan is a Citrus hybrid cultivated for its edible fruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanpei</span> Citrus fruit

Kanpei, also known as Ehime queen splash, is a Citrus cultivar that originated in Japan.

Couepia polyandra, also known as olosapo, zapote amarillo, baboon cap, and monkey cap, is a flowering tree in the family Chrysobalanaceae.

References

  1. "Annona macroprophyllata". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  2. Popenoe, Wilson (1920). "The Annonaceous Fruits: The ilama". Manual of tropical and subtropical fruits excluding the banana, coconut, pineapple, citrus fruits, olive, and fig. New York: The MacMillan Company. pp. 188–191.
  3. Ibar, Leandro (1979). Aguacate, chirimoyo, mango, papaya. Barcelona: Editorial Aedos. p. 123. ISBN   9788470032851.
  4. "GURU - MALAYALAM MOVIE - Review, Trailer, Movie, Actress, Wallpapers, Aam Aadmi Learns The Parable Of ilama Fruit :-)". MouthShut.com. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
  5. "IPS – CINEMA-INDIA: Oscar Entry Offers Spiritual Solution to Conflict | Inter Press Service". Archived from the original on 2013-02-10. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
  6. "Guru goes in search of the Oscar - the Hindu". Archived from the original on November 21, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.