Mango

The ‘mango’ is a native of Burma, Sikkim, Khasia and the W. Ghats (India). Widely cultivated in the Punjab and Sind for its edible and tasty grafted varieties.

This species is a popular tropical fruit tree with more than a hundred cultivars.

A glabrous tree up to 15 m tall. Leaves 11-24 x 4-8 cm, oblong, lanceolate, acuminate, coriaceous, shiny and dark green on upper surface. Flowering panicles erect, conspicuous, longer than the leaves, pubescent. Calyx lobes ovate, pubescent on the outside. Petals imbricate, oblong, inner surface prominently 3-nerved. Drupe ± ovoid in outline, compressed, 3.5-20 cm long. Mesocarp fleshy. Endocarp (stone) hard and fibrous.

Trees, 10-20 m tall; branchlets brown, glabrous. Petiole 2-6 cm, grooved apically, inflated basally; leaf blade oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 12-30 × 3.5-6.5 cm, leathery, deep green adaxially, light green abaxially, glabrous on both sides, base cuneate to obtuse, margin entire, undulate, apex acute to long acuminate, lateral veins 20-25 pairs, midrib prominent on both sides, reticulate venation obscure. Inflorescence paniculate, terminal, 20-35 cm, glabrous to tomentose-pilose; bracts ca. 1.5 mm, lanceolate pubescent. Pedicels 1.5-3 mm, articulate. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-3 × ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous to pubescent, acuminate. Petals light yellow with prominent red tree-shaped pattern adaxially, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 3.5-4 × ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous, recurved at anthesis. Fertile stamen 1, ca. 2.5 mm, with ovate anther; staminodes 4, 0.7-1 mm. Disk inflated, fleshy, 5-lobed. Ovary oblique, ovate, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. at anthesis; style ca. 2.5 mm, eccentric. Drupe oblong to subreniform, greenish yellow to red, 5-10 × 3-4.5 cm; fleshy mesocarp bright yellow; endocarp ± compressed. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May-Jul.

Tropical Himalaya, India, Ceylon, Burma, Indo-China, Malaysia, widely cultivated and often naturalised in Tropics.

Distribution: Widely cultivated in the tropics.

S Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, S Yunnan [native to continental SE Asia; cultivated in tropical regions worldwide].

300-700 m

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Cultivated; 200-1400 m.

Mangifera austroyunnanensis Hu.