Charles' tips on care of the star apple tree

A star apple tree in a planter at Keurboomstrand near Plettenberg Bay.

 The star apple species grows into a medium-sized tree of up to 15 m tall. It is single-stemmed and forms a dense canopy. The bark is greyish-brown, and smooth to slightly wrinkled. The young growth is covered in yellowish hairs with a velvety texture.

   The creamy-white flowers are bell-shaped and pendulous, and occur between November and March. The male and female flowers are borne on separate plants and fruits are up to 25 mm in diameter, pumpkin-shaped, with a dense covering of velvety hairs. 

   The clear, jelly-like pulp holds between 3 and 8 shiny brown, slender 10 mm long seeds, each with a single prominent dark spot.
   This species is common in coastal scrub, on coastal sandy flats and along the edges of forests. It is found along a wide coastal belt from the Western Cape eastwards and northwards through the Eastern Cape and along the KwaZulu-Natal coast, in Swaziland, along the Lebombo Mountains and the Soutpansberg, and further north to Mozambique. It prefers moist regions with a high rainfall.

General reference Wikipedia

Charles’ tips on care of this tree

• This tree’s beauty is often disguised as “a bushy mess” and falls victim to bush or plot clearing, while in fact this tree can be transplanted to a convenient spot on the erf rather than desroyed. 
• It needs time to grow but is rewarding with its gorgeous velvet-coloured fruit which is loved by birds and primates. This tree is mostly multi-stemmed outside the forest and full of character once carefully pruned. 
• It grows in regular sandy loam topsoil and needs little care apart from mulching with old leaf litter.
• I have found a group of these in a bush-like clump infested with cochineal which results in dense sooty mould layers. There are various ways to handle this infestation, if it is deemed necessary to treat them at all!