PINECONE
(Rollinia sylvatica)

A tree of pinecone

Family: Annonaceae

Synonyms: Annona sylvatica

Other names: Araticu Do Mato, Embira

Pine cone is a fruit from Brazil.  It grows there in coastal areas but in mountainous regions at relatively higher altitudes. As the shape fruit resembles somewhat that of a pinecone, so the English writers have named it pinecone.

Fruit bearing on a pinecone tree

            This fruit is rarely cultivated.

Descriprion:

A medium- sized evergreen tree, 6-8 m tall.

Leaves elliptical or oblong, shortly acuminate, acute, or obtuse at the apex, acutish at the base, above puberulous when young, at length glabrous, beneath softly tomentose; petiole, midrib, and veins clothed with ferrugineous hairs, the remainder of the lowersurface with white hairs: peduncles solitary or in pairs, clothed with ferrugineous tomentum.

Pinecone leaves

Flowers exra axillary, solitary or in groups of 2-3, corolla- wings suborbicular.

A flower of pinecone

Fruit globose, solitary, the size of a small apple, pubescent, with the component carpels forming prominent pentagonal areoles; pulp edible, somewhat like that of the cherimoya.

Utilization:

Pine cone fruits have a sweet pulp.  These are eaten out of hand.  However, the fruits are not very popular due to presence of too many seeds which reduce the edible portion.

A fruit of pinecone ready to pick

Cultivated:

Pine cone is a wild growing fruit and is rarely planted.  New plants of this fruit tree can, however, be raised from seed.