Mango (Mangifera indica)

• Family: Anacardiaceae
• Local Names: Amharic (mango), Arabic (manga), Bengali (am), Burmese (thayet thayt-hypu,thar-yetthi,mempalam), Creole (mango), Creole Patois (margot), Dutch (bobbie manja,manja,manggaboom,kanjanna manja,maggo), English (mango), Filipino (paho,mangga,mango)

Description

1. Mangifera indica is a large evergreen tree to 20 m tall with a dark green, umbrella-shaped crown. Trunk stout, 90 cm in diameter; bark brown, smoothish, with many thin fissures; thick, becoming darker, rough and scaly or furrowed; branchlets rather stout, pale green and hairless. Inner bark light brown and bitter. A whitish latex exudes from cut twigs and a resin from cuts in the trunk.

2. Leaves alternate, simple, leathery, oblong-lanceolate, 16-30 x 3-7 cm, on flowering branches, up to 50 cm on sterile branches, curved upward from the midrib and sometimes with edges a little wavy. Young leaves red, aging to shiny dark green above, lighter below, with yellow or white venation; petioles 4.5 cm long, striate and swollen at the base.

3. Inflorescence 16 cm or more in length, a much-branched panicle bearing many very small (4 mm) greenish-white or pinkish flowers. Flowers radially symmetrical, usually have 5 spreading petals, 3-5 mm long, 1-1.5 mm broad, streaked with red, imbricate, with the median petal prolonged like a crest at the base, finely hairy and fragrant, partly male and partly bisexual; stalk short; 5 stamens, 1 fertile, the other 4 shorter and sterile, borne in a disc. The flower has a conspicuous 5-lobed disc between the petals and stamens. Calyx yellow-green, very short, deeply 5-lobed; 5 sepals, each 2-2.5 mm long x 1-1.5 mm broad, green with whitish margin, or yellowish-green, hairy outside.

4. Fruit an irregularly egg-shaped and slightly compressed fleshy drupe, 8-12 (max. 30) cm long, attached at the broadest end on a pendulous stalk. The skin smooth, greenish-yellow, sometimes tinged with red. The underlying yellow-orange flesh varies in quality from soft, sweet, juicy and fibre-free in high-quality selected (clonal) varieties to turpentine flavoured and fibrous in wild seedlings. The single, compressed-ovoid seed is encased in the white fibrous inner layer of the fruit.

Ecology

1. The mango thrives in both the subtropics and the tropics. In the subtropics, the cold months ensure excellent floral induction, but late frosts are a major risk; tender parts of the tree are killed by frost. In the tropics, the mango grows anywhere up to 1200 m elevation, but for fruit production a prominent dry season lasting more than 3 months is necessary. A flowering flush is produced during the dry season, but—contrary to the subtropics—flowering is erratic and a yield-limiting factor. At elevations above 600 m in the tropics, the climate becomes too cool for the commercial cultivars, the optimum temperature being about 24-27 deg. C.

2. The trees are drought tolerant but do not seem to suffer from occasional flooding. Frequently found in coastal areas. Trees shade out grasses because of their thick crowns.

Native range

Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar

Tree Management

1. Irrigation in the 1st years after planting promotes flushing (and suppresses flowering), so that tree size increases quickly. Irrigation also widens the scope for intercropping, for example, with papaya, banana, pineapple or vegetables, during the establishment phase. When the trees are big enough to produce a substantial crop, irrigation is stopped, or at least interrupted long enough to impose quiescence leading to flower initiation. Trees of most cultivars have a dense canopy, and with a little weeding the orchard floor can be kept clean.

2. To ensure good, balanced and productive growth, the mango seedlings should be pruned. The main stem of the hardy trees is allowed to grow to 1 m before being topped to give well-distributed branches. In fruiting trees, pruning is confined to the removal of dead wood and branches broken or weakened by pests and diseases.

Seed storage behaviour is recalcitrant; there is complete loss in viability within 7 days in open storage at 30 deg. C. Viability can be maintained for 120 days with subimbibed seeds stored at 15 deg. C; no loss in viability of excised embryonic axes on fast desiccation to 11.8% mc. Seeds are damaged by chilling to temperatures below 3-6 deg. C. They require no pretreatment, but nicking enhances germination. Fresh seeds germinate at temperatures between 5 and 40 deg. C, with germination being most rapid between 25 and 40 deg. C. The germination rate of fresh stones is generally over 80%, with the normal rate ranging from 60 to 90%. Sowing complete fruit or stones with the pulp attached delays germination by up to 7 weeks, and germination rate is only 30-50%. Mature mango seeds have a high mc and cannot withstand desiccation; desiccation below 30% mc will kill them. Wet storage of stones at 15 deg. C is possible, but germinating seeds develop roots about 5 cm long and shoots about 8 cm long after 6 months. There are up to 50 seeds/kg.

3. The mango thrives in both the subtropics and the tropics. In the subtropics, the cold months ensure excellent floral induction, but late frosts are a major risk; tender parts of the tree are killed by frost. In the tropics, the mango grows anywhere up to 1200 m elevation, but for fruit production a prominent dry season lasting more than 3 months is necessary. A flowering flush is produced during the dry season, but—contrary to the subtropics—flowering is erratic and a yield-limiting factor. At elevations above 600 m in the tropics, the climate becomes too cool for the commercial cultivars, the optimum temperature being about 24-27 deg. C.

4. The trees are drought tolerant but do not seem to suffer from occasional flooding. Frequently found in coastal areas. Trees shade out grasses because of their thick crowns.

Timber

Heartwood is pale yellowish-brown to reddish-brown, darkening on exposure, not clearly demarcated from the pale yellowish-brown sapwood. Grain somewhat wavy, texture moderately coarse; freshly cut wood is scentless. The wood is used for many purposes, including indoor construction, meat-chopping blocks, furniture, carpentry, flooring, boxes, crates and boat building (canoes and dugouts).

Shade or Shelter

Its umbrella-shaped crown makes the mango tree a suitable shade for people and their livestock; it also acts as a firebreak.

Medicine

Charred and pulverized leaves make a plaster to remove warts and also act as a styptic. Seeds are used to treat stubborn colds and coughs, obstinate diarrhoea and bleeding piles. The bark is astringent, homeostatic and antirheumatic.

Gum or Resin