Information about mango tree
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Explanation:
Mangoes are juicy stone fruit (drupe) from numerous species of tropical trees belonging to the flowering plant genus Mangifera, cultivated mostly for their edible fruit.
The majority of these species are found in nature as wild mangoes. The genus belongs to the cashew family Anacardiaceae. Mangoes are native to South Asia,[1][2] from where the "common mango" or "Indian mango", Mangifera indica, has been distributed worldwide to become one of the most widely cultivated fruits in the tropics. Other Mangifera species (e.g. horse mango, Mangifera foetida) are grown on a more localized basis.
It is the national fruit of India and Pakistan, and the national tree of Bangladesh.[3] It is the unofficial national fruit of the Philippines.[4]
Etymology and history
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The English word "mango" (plural "mangoes" or "mangos") originated from the Malayalam word māṅṅa (or mangga) via Dravidian-Tamil மாங்காய் (or maanguy,literally meaning "highest fruit") during the spice trade period with South India in the 15th and 16th centuries.[5][6][7]
The earliest known reference to the cultivation of mangoes can be traced to India up to 2000BCE[8] Mango was brought to East Asia around 400–500 BCE, in the 15th century to the Philippines, and in the 16th century to Africa and Brazil by Portuguese explorers.[9]. There have been several verified accounts and novels with references to the mango fruit in Indian Tamil literary works, the most prominent known reference to the mango fruit being to the 5th century saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar, where it is mentioned that she received a mango fruit as a boon from Lord Shiva, due to her devotion when her husband requested it, after providing alms one out of two mangoes given by her husband earlier to a Ascetic, disguised as Lord Shiva.[10]
Mango is mentioned by Hendrik van Rheede, the Dutch commander of the Malabar region in his 1678 book, Hortus Malabaricus, about plants having economic value.[11] When mangoes were first imported to the American colonies in the 17th century, they had to be pickled because of lack of refrigeration. Other fruits were also pickled and came to be called "mangoes", especially bell peppers, and in the 18th century, the word "mango" became a verb meaning "to pickle".[12]
Description
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The Carabao mango, the national fruit of the Philippines. Like other tropical Southeast Asian-type mangoes, it is characteristically polyembryonic and bright yellow when ripe, unlike the subtropical Indian-type mangoes which are monoembryonic and reddish when ripe.[13]
Mango trees grow to 35–40 m (115–131 ft) tall, with a crown radius of 10 m (33 ft). The trees are long-lived, as some specimens still fruit after 300 years.[14] 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.[1] The leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple, 15–35 cm (5.9–13.8 in) long, and 6–16 cm (2.4–6.3 in) broad; when the leaves are young they are orange-pink, rapidly changing to a dark, glossy red, then dark green as they mature.[1] The flowers are produced in terminal panicles 10–40 cm (3.9–15.7 in) long; each flower is small and white with five petals 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) long, with a mild, sweet fragrance.[1] Over 500 varieties of mangoes are known,[1] many of which ripen in summer, while some give a double crop.[15] The fruit takes four to five months from flowering to ripen.[1]
The ripe fruit varies in size, shape, color, sweetness, and eating quality.[1] Cultivars are variously yellow, orange, red, or green, and carry a single flat, oblong pit that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface, and which does not separate easily from the pulp.[1] The fruits 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.[1] The skin is leather-like, waxy, smooth, and fragrant, with color ranging from green to yellow, yellow-orange, yellow-red, or blushed with various shades of red, purple, pink or yellow when fully ripe.[1]
Ripe intact mangoes give off a distinctive resinous, sweet smell.[1] Inside the pit 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) thick is a thin lining covering a single seed, 4–7 cm (1.6–2.8 in) long. Mangoes have recalcitrant seeds which do not survive freezing and drying.[16] Mango trees grow readily from seeds, with germination success highest when seeds are obtained from mature fruits.