Annona cherimola (cherimoya).

Chermoyas are part of the custard-apple (Annona) family and are native to the northern Andes. Annona is the Taíno (a native people of the Caribbean) word for a related fruit. The species name is from the Quechua word for the fruit (Quechua is a language group from the central and northern Andes, like Peru and Equador).

Chermoyas are an odd looking green fruit I have often seen in Safeways here in San Francisco. A few months ago I decided to stomach the $6.99/lbs cost and buy one of these buggers. They look the like the unholy union of a strawberry and an artichoke, but the taste is more like a non-acidic apple mixed with cream. I was really really careful when I cut it in half so as not to nick any seeds. In retrospect this was totally unneeded. The fruit had about 40 or 50 rock hard seeds scattered throughout the spongy flesh. The seeds themselves are rather pretty--dark woody brown and about the size of an almond.

As was my want, I planted all of the seeds in a shallow container filled with a potting soil/perlite mix. They all sprouted. Every single one of them. I was so annoyed. I replanted as many as I could manage and put the rest in the compost bin. I didn't even cry this time. Well at least not a lot. Now I have a little grove of these guys. I probably would have gotten rid of more of them, but their foliage is just too attractive.

Here is a close up on one of the Chermoyas. As you can see the leaves are very regularly alternate. They seem to pump out a new leave every other week. I tipped one of them to see if it would branch but so far it hasn't. I really enjoy the color of the leaves. They supposedly can take cold weather, since they are Andean, but one that was near the window seems to have gotten a little cold burn from touching the glass.