Rollinia might be the strangest looking fruit in the whole food forest, and that’s saying something given the company it keeps.
The Basics
Rollinia, Annona mucosa (also sold under the older name Rollinia deliciosa), also called biriba in Brazil, is a member of the custard apple family, Annonaceae.
Origin and Habitat
Native to the Amazon basin in Brazil, where it grows as an understory or edge tree in humid lowland forest.
What It Looks Like
The fruit looks like it’s from another planet, covered in soft, cone-shaped bumps, starting green and turning yellow like a banana as it ripens.
Uses and Flavor
Sweet, custardy, and almost meringue-like inside, milder and less acidic than soursop, and honestly probably in my own top ten best-tasting fruits on the whole farm when it’s at its best. Best eaten tree ripened, and it has a shelf life of less than a week, which is probably why you basically never see it for sale.
Growing It Here
Part of the Annona section that’s come together here alongside soursop, cherimoya, and envira caju, all sharing the same corner of the food forest. Both of ours were doing great until the same mysterious Annona pest or disease going around Hawaiʻi started affecting them too.
Pests and Diseases to Watch For
Mealybugs and the occasional seed borer are the usual Annona concerns, and like the rest of the Annona corner, ours are now also dealing with an unidentified pest or disease moving through Hawaiʻi’s Annona trees.
Kenta’s Take
A fruit this perishable, and this good, basically has to be grown at home to ever be tasted properly, and that alone makes it worth the space, disease pressure and all.