What is "annonaceae"

Annonaceae \Annonaceae\ n. 1. 1 a family of chiefly tropical trees or shrubs.

Syn: family Annonaceae, custard-apple family.

The Annonaceae are a family, the custard apple family, of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas. With 105 accepted genera and about 2500 known species, it is the largest family in the Magnoliales. Several genera produce edible fruit, most notably Annona, Anonidium, Asimina, Rollinia, and Uvaria. Its type genus is Annona. The family is concentrated in the tropics, with few species found in temperate regions. About 900 species are Neotropical, 450 are Afrotropical, and the other species Indomalayan.

Compared to the species from the Neotropics, very little is known about many species from Indomalaya. Only a few attempts have been made for the phylogeny-based reclassification of the family, and those have been hampered by the Neotropic bias in the available information, with the most of the work having been done on genera and tribes.