A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree Mangifera indica. It originated in the northeastern part of the South Asia, in what is now Bangladesh, northeastern India and Myanmar. M. indica has been cultivated in South and Southeast Asia since ancient times, resulting in two modern mango cultivar lineages: the "Indian" and the "Southeast Asian" types. Other species in the genus Mangifera also produce edible fruit called "mangoes", most of which are found in the Malesian ecoregion. There are several hundred cultivars of mango worldwide. Depending on the cultivar, mango fruits vary in size, shape, sweetness, skin colour, and flesh colour, which may be pale yellow, gold, green, or orange. Mango is the national fruit of India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, while the mango tree is the national tree of Bangladesh.
Etymology The English word mango (plural mangoes or mangos) originated in the 16th century from the Portuguese word manga, from the Malayalam manga, and ultimately from the Tamil māṉ (மான், 'mango tree') + kāy (காய், 'unripe fruit/vegetable').
Description Mango trees grow to 30–40 metres (98–131 feet) tall, with a crown radius of 10–15 m (33–49 ft). The trees are long-lived, as some specimens still fruit after 300 years. In deep soil, the taproot descends to a depth of 6 m (20 ft), with profuse, wide-spreading feeder roots and anchor roots penetrating deeply into the soil. The leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple, 15–35 centimetres (6–14 inches) long, and 6–16 cm (2+1⁄2–6+1⁄2 in) broad; when the leaves are young they are orange-pink, rapidly changing to a dark, glossy red, then dark green as they mature. The flowers are produced in terminal panicles 10–40 cm (4–15+1⁄2 in) long; each flower is small and white with five petals 5–10 millimetres (3⁄16–3⁄8 in) long, with a mild, sweet fragrance.
Fruit The fruit has a single flat, oblong stone that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface and does not separate easily from the pulp. The fruit may be somewhat round, oval, or kidney-shaped, ranging from 5–25 centimetres (2–10 in) in length and from 140 grams (5 oz) to 2 kilograms (5 lb) in weight per individual fruit. The skin is leather-like, waxy, smooth, and fragrant, with colours ranging from green to yellow, yellow-orange, yellow-red, or blushed with various shades of red, purple, pink, or yellow when fully ripe. The ripe fruits vary according to cultivar in size, shape, colour, sweetness, and eating quality. Depending on the cultivar, the fruit is variously yellow, orange, red, or green. Over 500 cultivars of mango are known, many of which ripen in summer, while some give a double crop. The fruit takes four to five months from flowering to ripening. Ripe intact mangoes give off a distinctive resinous, sweet smell. Inside the stone with its 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) thick woody endocarp is a single seed, 4–7 cm (1.6–2.8 in) long. Mangoes have recalcitrant seeds which do not survive freezing and drying. Mango trees grow readily from seeds, with germination success highest when seeds are obtained from mature fruit.
Taxonomy Mangoes originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. The mango is considered an evolutionary anachronism, whereby seed dispersal was once accomplished by a now-extinct evolutionary forager, such as a megafauna mammal. From their centre of origin, mangoes diverged into two genetically distinct populations: the subtropical Indian group and the tropical Southeast Asian group. The Indian group is characterized by having monoembryonic fruit, while the Southeast Asian group is characterized by polyembryonic fruit. It was previously believed that mangoes originated from a single domestication event in South Asia before being spread to Southeast Asia, but a 2019 study found no evidence of a center of diversity in India. Instead, it identified a higher unique genetic diversity in Southeast Asian cultivars than in Indian cultivars, indicating that mangoes may have originally been domesticated first in Southeast Asia before being introduced to South Asia. However, the authors cautioned that the diversity in Southeast Asian mangoes might be the result of other reasons (like interspecific hybridization with other Mangifera species native to the Malesian ecoregion). Nevertheless, the existence of two distinct genetic populations identified by the study indicates that the domestication of the mango is more complex than previously assumed and would at least indicate multiple domestication events in Southeast Asia and South Asia. Other species in the genus Mangifera also produce edible fruit called "mangoes", most of which are found in the Malesian ecoregion.
Cultivars
There are hundreds of named mango cultivars. Mango orchards often grow several cultivars together to improve pollination. Many desired cultivars are monoembryonic and must be propagated by grafting to ensure they breed true. A common monoembryonic cultivar is 'Alphonso', an important export product, considered "the king of mangoes". Cultivars that excel in one climate may fail elsewhere. For example, Indian cultivars such as 'Julie', a prolific cultivar in Jamaica, require annual fungicide treatments to escape the lethal fungal disease anthracnose in Florida. Asian mangoes are resistant to anthracnose. The current western market is dominated by the cultivar 'Tommy Atkins', a seedling of 'Haden' that first fruited in 1940 in southern Florida and was initially rejected commercially by Florida researchers. Growers and importers worldwide have embraced the cultivar for its excellent productivity and disease resistance, shelf life, transportability, size, and appealing colour. Although the Tommy Atkins cultivar is commercially successful, other cultivars may be preferred by consumers for eating pleasure, such as Alphonso.
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