Plant family: Malpighiaceae
Plant origin: Mexico, Carribean, Central and South America
Fruit description: The Acerola Cherry plant is one of the easiest plants to grow, and they have the great benefit of producing a delicious healthy fruit you can eat straight off the plant ! Kids love them ! Acerola Cherries are usually picked when they are dark red, then they are sweet with a flavor resembling raspberries. They can be also be picked when they are semi-ripe with an orange or pale red color, then they have a sweet/sour taste. Acerola Cherry fruit are a bright red fruit 25-40 mm in diameter, each weighing 3 - 5g. Fruits form on the bush in groups of 2 or 3, each fruit contains three small triangular seeds. The plants usually flower and fruit in the first year, and are very suitable to grow in a pot.
Flowers: Flowers are bisexual and 1–2 mm in diameter. The flowers are star-shaped occurring in groups of 3 to 5 flowers. Each flower has five pale pink to deep pink or red fringed petals.
Growing conditions: Acerola is an evergreen shrub with spreading branches on a short trunk. The shrub is decorative and evergreen. It prefers well drained soil and half- sun to full sun. It is grown as an ornamental, and as a hedge plant.
Uses: The fruit of the Acerola Cherry are very rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, they are used to make juices, pulps or jams. Vitamin C is processed commercially from Acerola Cherries. The fruit can also be used as a baby food and for juice.
Medicinal uses: Acerola Cherries are extremely rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, and also contain vitamins A, B1, B2 and B3, carotenoids and bioflavenoids The vitamin C produced from Acerola Cherry fruit is easily absorbed by humans compared to synthetic ascorbic acid.
Pollination requirements: Self - Pollinating. Flowers are bisexual and 1–2 mm in diameter. The flowers are star-shaped occurring in groups of 3 to 5 flowers. Each flower has five pale to deep pink or red fringed petals.
Harvest time The Acerola Cherry fruits all year, as they have many flowerings through the year. The plant will fruit in its first year.
Plant relatives
Special features: Acerola Cherry fruit have very strong antioxidant properties. They are popular as a bonsai plant. It is also grown as an ornamental, and as a hedge plant.
Acerola is an evergreen shrub with spreading branches on a short trunk.
The leaves are simple ovate-lanceolate, 20 - 80 mm long, 10 - 40 mm wide, on short petioles. They are opposite, and have entire or undulating margins with small hairs.
Grown by method: Cutting Grown Pot size: 140mm
Plant growing Height and Width for pots or in the ground planting: Grows to 2 metres high by 1.5 metres wide if Planted in a Pot. Grows 2.5 metres high by 2.5 metres wide if Planted in the Ground.
Shipping plant pot or planter bag size: 140mm
