Trees 3-7 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets tomentose, glabrescent. Axillary leaf buds ovoid, apex obtuse. Petiole 6-12 mm; leaf blade ovate, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic, obovate, or rarely orbicular, 5-25 × 2.5-10 cm, thinly papery, abaxially tomentose, adaxially pubescent, secondary veins 11-14 on each side of midvein and forming an angle from 60° to almost 90° with midvein, base rounded to obtuse and slightly decurrent onto petiole, apex obtuse to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences 1-3-flowered. Sepals ovate, 2-4 mm, outside tomentose, inside glabrous. Petals outside greenish yellow to reddish, inside yellowish to whitish and basally purple-spotted, linear-oblong, 1.5-3 cm, tomentose, apex obtuse; inner petals absent or reduced to minute scales. Stamens oblong, 1.2-1.7 mm. Syncarp mostly green, ovoid, cordate, conic, or rarely globose, to 20 × 15 cm, smooth or tuberculate but not furrowed between areoles; pulp white. Seeds blackish brown, turning paler when dry, obovoid, ca. 1 cm, slightly flattened, apex obliquely truncate. Fl. Mar-Jul, fr. Jun-Nov.

The fruit, cherimoya, has good dessert qualities and is subacid and delicate. It is eaten raw, used in cooling drinks, and used in sherbets. It contains up to 18.4% sugar, 1.8% protein, and 0.4% fat.

Widely cultivated; 100-300 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to tropical America].