›

Cherimoya

Forest & Kim Starr / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 3.0

Cherimoya

Annona cherimola

Cherimoya is a small, fast-growing subtropical fruit tree of the custard-apple family, grown for one of the most prized fruits in the genus Annona: a heart-shaped to conical green fruit with a scaled or knobbly skin and snow-white, sweet, juicy flesh often compared to a cross between banana and pineapple. Kew records it as native to the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and the name comes from the Quechua chirimuya, 'cold seeds', a nod to the cool highlands it favors. It grows 16 to 30 feet tall, drops its leaves briefly just before its fragrant spring flowers open, and starts bearing at about 3.5-5 years old. It is fussy about climate in both directions: a freeze a few degrees below 26°F can kill even a mature tree, while lowland tropical heat and humidity make it fail, so it belongs in mild, nearly frost-free subtropical or highland gardens (roughly zones 9b-11b). Its flowers switch from female to male within hours and few insects visit them, so growers usually hand-pollinate for a good crop. Eat only the ripe flesh: the seeds are poisonous if crushed or eaten, and the leaves, twigs and bark are not food either. It escapes from cultivation and has naturalized well outside its native range; Plants For A Future lists it as possibly invasive on Easter Island and in the Galapagos, Hawaii and New Zealand.

Climate fit: narrow (17/100)

Edible

Focal point

Structure

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

16-30 ft tall · 25-30 ft apart

Hardy in zones

9b-11b

frosty to nearly frost-free winters

Life cycle

Perennial

Native in Illinois

No

Only the ripe fruit flesh is eaten, out of hand, scooped with a spoon, or made into sherbet, ice cream and drinks (Morton).

°C

°F

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Won't grow here

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Won't grow here

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✕

Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 2 ecoregions - 2 climate-resilient through 2070. Best matches first.

California coastal sage and chaparral

›

Fynbos shrubland

›

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

25-30 ft

Habit

Erect but low-branched, often shrubby or spreading small tree 16 to 30 feet tall and about 30 feet across, with rusty-haired young shoots and leaves that are velvety underneath; briefly deciduous just before spring flowering

Care tips

•

Choose the climate before the tree: cherimoya wants mild, nearly frost-free winters and warm but not steamy summers. A freeze a few degrees below 26°F can kill it, and it has repeatedly failed in humid lowland Florida and the lowland tropics; where summers are hot and wet, consider the atemoya, its hybrid with sugar apple, which has received attention in Florida, Brazil, Australia and West Africa.

•

Hand-pollinate for a real crop: collect partly opened flowers in the afternoon, let them shed their pollen in a paper bag overnight, and brush it onto the white, sticky stigmas of receptive female-stage flowers the next morning, repeating every 4-5 days to spread the harvest. Leaving leaf litter and a few fallen fruits under the tree helps the small sap beetles that pollinate it naturally.

•

Site it out of strong wind and in well-drained soil: wind disrupts pollination and fruit set, and wet clay leads to root rot.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in a sheltered, nearly frost-free spot in full sun, on well-drained soil. Plants For A Future says it cannot grow in shade and California Rare Fruit Growers say it prefers a sunny exposure; Wikipedia notes that it has been treated as shade-tolerant in Japan, where a 2001 Kyoto University study found 50-70% of full sunlight adequate, but Western growers are advised to give it full sun. It grows on light to heavy soils but does best on a medium soil of moderate fertility, and Morton gives an optimum soil pH of 6.5-7.6; wet clay invites root rot. Shelter it from strong wind, which interferes with pollination and fruit set, and allow about 25 to 30 feet between trees in an orchard layout.

Transplanting

Nursery trees are budded or grafted and grown on to about 3 to 4 feet before they are set out (Morton). Plant at the nursery depth in a hole enriched with organic matter, and stake young plants, since the root system starts as a taproot and stays weak and shallow (California Rare Fruit Growers). Shade the trunk of a cut-back or topworked tree from sunburn (Morton).

Early growth

Water young trees regularly through the growing season (Morton describes irrigation every 15-20 days), then ease off in winter so the tree can go dormant, ideally for about four months, and resume as the leaf buds break. Prune while dormant to form a clean trunk to about 32 inches and an open crown that lets in light.

Maturity

Trees begin to bear at about 3.5-5 years, and yields climb from the fifth to the tenth year; in Italy trees 30-35 years old have produced 230-280 fruits a year (Morton). Stop watering bearing trees once the fruit is full-sized, and pick fruit when it is full-grown, still firm, and just turning a paler, yellowish green.

Propagation

Seed kept dry stays viable for years and germinates in about 3-5 weeks, but seedlings tend to give inferior fruit, so named cultivars are budded or grafted onto seedling rootstocks once those are 12-24 months old and dormant (Morton). Cuttings of mature wood have rooted with bottom heat. Handle seed with care: juice from crushed seed is an eye hazard.

Pollination

Self-fertile (better with a partner)

Each flower carries both sexes but opens first in a female stage and shifts to a male stage within hours (Wikipedia), and its male and female parts do not mature at the same time (Morton), so a flower rarely pollinates itself. The species is not self-incompatible, though: Plants For A Future rates it self-fertile, so a single tree can set fruit once pollen is carried between its flowers. A 2017 study reported by Wikipedia names small nitidulid sap beetles as the key pollinators; they feed on nutritious tissue at the base of the petals, mate inside the flowers, and need leaf litter and rotting fruit under the tree for their larvae. Morton notes that few insects visit the flowers, so growers away from wild habitat hand-pollinate: collect partly opened flowers in the afternoon and keep them in a paper bag overnight, then next morning brush the shed pollen onto the white, sticky stigmas of female-stage flowers within the 6-8 hours they stay receptive, and repeat every 4-5 days. Hand-pollinated fruit is larger and better shaped (Morton).

For people

Parts edible

Only the ripe fruit flesh is eaten, out of hand, scooped with a spoon, or made into sherbet, ice cream and drinks (Morton). The large black seeds are poisonous: Wikipedia reports they are poisonous if crushed open, Morton records that 0.15 g of a resin isolated from them caused atropine-like poisoning (dilated pupils, vomiting, a burning throat), and juice from crushed seeds reportedly caused blindness when it got into the eyes. The twigs carry the same alkaloids as the seeds and the leaves several of them (Morton), an extract of the bark can cause paralysis if injected, and like other members of its family the whole plant holds small amounts of neurotoxic acetogenins such as annonacin, which Wikipedia says appear to be linked to atypical parkinsonism in Guadeloupe. Spit the seeds out whole, never grind or chew them, and keep leaves, twigs and bark out of food and away from children.

Edible parts

fruit

Toxic parts

seeds, twigs, leaves, bark

Native range

Climate notes

•

Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants records Annona cherimola as native to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and Morton describes it growing naturally in inter-Andean valleys at about 4,593 to 6,562 feet. Wikipedia reports genetic research that instead places its origin in Honduras and Guatemala, with the Andean trees carried south by people about 4,000 years ago, so its ultimate origin is contested.

•

Plotwright publishes 9b-11b as an editorial range, because Plants For A Future is the only zone source that profiles it and its reading is set aside here. Its hardiness cell reads USDA 8-12, but its own cultivation note describes basically frost-free areas. Julia Morton's Fruits of Warm Climates (hosted by Purdue University) reports that young trees have withstood 26°F while a few degrees colder severely injures or kills mature trees, and California Rare Fruit Growers say young growing tips die at 29°F and mature trees are killed or badly injured at 25°F, the cold end of zone 9b's 25 to 30°F average extreme minimum. Treat 9b as the marginal cold limit, where a hard freeze can still kill it, and zone 10 as the safer choice. The warm edge stops at 11b rather than Plants For A Future's 12 because Morton says it does not succeed in the lowland tropics, and California Rare Fruit Growers put its winter chilling need at about 50-100 hours.

•

Heat and humidity limit it as much as cold. Morton says it does not succeed in the lowland tropics, where repeated plantings in Singapore failed, and that trees planted in Florida have never done well. It wants a mild, fairly dry climate with a winter rest; the ideal Peruvian climate Morton cites runs 64 to 77°F in summer and 41 to 64°F in winter. In California, Morton (writing in 1987) placed the commercial plantings in the milder parts of San Diego County, and a 1937 freeze killed many of the state's trees.

•

Outside its native range it escapes readily. The Charles Darwin Foundation lists it as naturalized and potentially invasive in the Galapagos, Morton records it naturalized in dry upland forests in Hawaii and escaping onto hillsides in Jamaica, and Plants For A Future flags it as possibly invasive on Easter Island and in the Galapagos, Hawaii and New Zealand. Check local invasive-plant guidance before planting it near native habitat.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Diospyros virginiana

American persimmon

A tough, medium-sized native tree of the eastern and midwestern United States, grown as much for its showy edible orange fruit as for its distinctive thick, dark gray bark broken into rectangular blocks. Small urn-shaped white-to-greenish-yellow flowers open in May and June, and the sweet fruit ripens after frost. Largely dioecious - a female tree needs a male pollinizer nearby to set fruit - and notably drought- and walnut-tolerant once established.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Asimina triloba

Pawpaw

A small native understory tree of eastern North American forests producing the largest native fruit on the continent - a banana-custard-flavored tropical-tasting drupe in late summer. The canonical larval host for zebra swallowtail (Protographium marcellus, an Annonaceae specialist) per NC State; without pawpaw colonies the butterfly cannot reproduce. Self-incompatible - two genetically distinct trees are required for fruit set. Fly-and-beetle-pollinated via fetid maroon spring flowers.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Carya illinoinensis

Pecan

The largest of the hickories and the most valuable nut tree native to North America - a deciduous lowland giant that Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 75 to 100 feet (occasionally to 150 feet) with a broad rounded crown. Odd-pinnate compound leaves carry 9-17 falcate, finely toothed leaflets, and the sweet edible nuts ripen in fall inside a thin four-sectioned husk. Monoecious and wind-pollinated, it needs at least two varieties nearby for reliable nut set, and 8-10 years from seed before it bears.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Prunus domestica

European plum

A deciduous fruit tree of the rose family, native to Turkey and Europe and grown for its blue-to-black stone fruit. NC State describes it as a large shrub or small tree, 10 to 20 feet tall and wide, with an erect habit, smooth dark bark, and egg-shaped alternate leaves. Showy fragrant white flowers open in spring - it is the latest-blooming plum, which suits it to northern climates - and the fleshy 2-3 inch drupes ripen blue or black in September.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Castanea dentata

American chestnut

Once the dominant canopy hardwood of the eastern United States forest - an estimated four billion trees, prized for fast growth, rot-resistant timber, and an enormous annual crop of sweet edible nuts that fed people, livestock, and wildlife alike. In the early 1900s an introduced Asian fungus, chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), swept through and functionally destroyed it: by the 1950s the species was effectively extinct as a mature forest tree. Surviving root systems still send up sprouts from old stumps, but the blight almost always girdles and kills them before they can grow large enough to flower and reproduce. The honest reality for a gardener is that you cannot reliably grow a mature wild-type American chestnut today. The realistic paths are blight-resistant backcross hybrids from The American Chestnut Foundation or transgenic blight-tolerant lines still being deployed - not a pure wild seedling, which the blight will almost certainly kill.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

A tough, medium-sized native tree of the eastern and midwestern United States, grown as much for its showy edible orange fruit as for its distinctive thick, dark gray bark broken into rectangular blocks. Small urn-shaped white-to-greenish-yellow flowers open in May and June, and the sweet fruit ripens after frost. Largely dioecious - a female tree needs a male pollinizer nearby to set fruit - and notably drought- and walnut-tolerant once established.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

The domesticated orchard apple - a deciduous Rosaceae tree grown for its showy, edible fruit and fragrant April blossom of five white-to-pink petals around a ring of yellow stamens. Not native to North America (the genus Malus spans Europe, Asia, and North America, but the cultivated apple is an Old World hybrid lineage). Almost all varieties are self-incompatible: a second, different apple cultivar blooming at the same time must be nearby for fruit to set, and trees are grown on dwarf, semi-dwarf, or standard rootstocks that decide final size.

A small deciduous Rosaceae fruit tree grown for its golden-orange, red-blushed drupes - fragrant, showy, edible, and ripening in summer. Fragrant white flowers (pink in bud) open in early spring before the foliage, two weeks ahead of peaches. That early bloom is also its weakness: the flowers are extremely susceptible to frost injury, so apricots are notoriously hard to crop reliably outside sheltered sites.

A deciduous Eastern-Asian fruit tree with a rounded, spreading crown that the Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 20 to 30 feet tall and wide. Oval leaves emerge yellowish-green, mature to glossy green, and turn gold to red in fall; fragrant but insignificant late-spring flowers give way to showy orange persimmons (3 to 4 inches) that ripen in late fall and may persist on bare branches into winter. Winter hardy to USDA Zones 7-10 and drought tolerant once established.

A frost-tender broadleaf evergreen tree of the laurel family, native to Mexico and Central America and grown across the tropics and subtropics for its buttery, pear-shaped fruit. Glossy dark-green elliptic leaves 4 to 8 inches long clothe a tree that reaches 30 to 60 feet, hung with greenish-yellow flower panicles that give way to large single-seeded berries. Hardy only in USDA zones 10-12 - north of that it is an indoor curiosity easily sprouted from a pit, but one that rarely fruits.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

Educator packet

Plant packet

Cherimoya educator packet

Cherimoya is a small, fast-growing subtropical fruit tree of the custard-apple family, grown for one of the most prized fruits in the genus Annona: a heart-shaped to conical green fruit with a scaled or knobbly skin and snow-white, sweet, juicy flesh often compared to a cross between banana and pineapple. Kew records it as native to the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and the name comes from the Quechua chirimuya, 'cold seeds', a nod to the cool highlands it favors. It grows 16 to 30 feet tall, drops its leaves briefly just before its fragrant spring flowers open, and starts bearing at about 3.5-5 years old. It is fussy about climate in both directions: a freeze a few degrees below 26°F can kill even a mature tree, while lowland tropical heat and humidity make it fail, so it belongs in mild, nearly frost-free subtropical or highland gardens (roughly zones 9b-11b). Its flowers switch from female to male within hours and few insects visit them, so growers usually hand-pollinate for a good crop. Eat only the ripe flesh: the seeds are poisonous if crushed or eaten, and the leaves, twigs and bark are not food either. It escapes from cultivation and has naturalized well outside its native range; Plants For A Future lists it as possibly invasive on Easter Island and in the Galapagos, Hawaii and New Zealand.

Scientific name

Annona cherimola

Plant type

tree

Hardiness

9b-11b

Light

full-sun

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

25-30 ft