Kind of a strange honor to have this one growing here at all — it’s critically endangered in the wild and basically nobody grows it outside its native range.
The Basics
Duguetia peruviana is an unusual relative of soursop and cherimoya, in the family Annonaceae. The genus Duguetia has around 90 species, most from Central and South America with four more in West Africa.
Origin and Habitat
This particular species grows in the lower elevation rainforests of Ecuador and Peru. It’s listed as critically endangered, most likely due to habitat loss, and outside its native range it’s essentially uncultivated and unknown.
What It Looks Like
A small tree, modest in size compared to a lot of its Annona cousins, which fits with how little space it seems to need in its native forest understory.
Uses and Flavor
Compared to its edible relatives, this one doesn’t hold much fruit pulp, but what’s there apparently tastes sweet. Like many plants in the Annonaceae family, it produces secondary metabolites — terpenes, flavonoids, and alkaloids — from different parts of the tree, and researchers are still working out what medicinal or pharmacological value those compounds might have, which could turn out to be significant.
Growing It Here
Got this one from Joe. Considering how rare it is in cultivation, just having it in the ground here feels like a small conservation act as much as a planting. It’s still alive, but it’s always been a struggler, growth has been slow and stubborn the whole time, and I suspect it may need to be transplanted to a better spot to really get going. In that sense it’s in familiar company with other rare, slow-going Joe imports like atom, junglesop, and almirajo.
Pests and Diseases to Watch For
No pest or disease issues to report yet — there’s so little cultivation history for this species anywhere that we’re partly figuring this out as we go.
Kenta’s Take
Growing something critically endangered and essentially uncultivated outside its home range is a different kind of responsibility than growing a mango. I like that this food forest has room for that too, even if it means accepting that this one might need a fresh spot before it really takes off.