23. Annona Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 536. 1753.
番荔枝属 fan li zhi shu
Authors: Bingtao Li & Michael G. Gilbert
Guanabanus Miller.
Trees or shrubs, with an indument of simple or stellate hairs. Inflorescences terminal, leaf-opposed, extra-axillary, or sometimes cauliflorous, never axillary, 1-flowered or in few-flowered clusters. Pedicel usually short. Sepals 3, small, valvate. Petals 6, in 2 whorls or inner whorl rudimentary or absent, free or connate at base; outer petals valvate, fleshy but leathery when dry, connivent or somewhat spreading, inside basally concave, margin thick; inner petals imbricate or valvate. Stamens many; filament short; connectives apically convex or apiculate. Carpels many, often connate; ovule 1 per carpel, basal; styles clavate; stigmas muriculate. Fruit syncarpous, surface covered with knobs, bulges, spines, or less often smooth. Seeds many per syncarp, embedded in edible pulp.
About 100 species: mostly in tropical America, a few in tropical Africa; seven species (all introduced) in China.
Annona includes several trees that have become widely grown for their fruit.
